Sex Offender Pleads Guilty to Child Exploitation Offense

 John H. Durham, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that PHILIP FROST, 30, formerly of Waterbury, waived his right to be indicted and pleaded guilty today to one count of receipt of child pornography.

Pursuant to the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), the court proceeding before U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert M. Spector occurred via videoconference.

According to court documents and statements made in court, in March 2016, Frost was convicted in state court of possessing child pornography in the second degree.  On October 1, 2019, while Frost was on special parole and residing in a halfway house, a staff member at the halfway house discovered Frost was in possession of a smartphone, which was a violation of Frost’s parole conditions.  The staff member secured the phone and contacted Frost’s parole officer.  That evening, before the parole officer arrived the next morning, Frost used another resident’s phone to delete the history of his various online messaging accounts.

Subsequent analysis of Frost’s smartphone revealed images of child pornography, including images depicting the sexual abuse of prepubescent children.  Frost had received the images on his smartphone after searching for them on the internet.

The investigation further revealed that, between July 31, 2019 and October 1, 2019, Frost engaged in sexual conduct with a 15-year-old victim.  Frost provided a cellphone to the minor victim so that they could communicate, and he enticed the minor victim to send him images of the minor victim engaging in sexually explicit conduct.  Frost also received these images on his smartphone.

Frost was on the Connecticut Sex Offender Registry at the time this criminal conduct.

Frost is scheduled be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Robert N. Chatigny on January 28, 2021, at which time he faces a mandatory minimum term of imprisonment of 15 years and a maximum term of imprisonment of 40 years.     

The minimum and maximum penalties in this case are enhanced based on Frost’s criminal history.

Frost has been detained since October 2, 2019.

This matter is being investigated by the Connecticut State Police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Margaret M. Donovan.

This prosecution is part of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Project Safe Childhood Initiative, which is aimed at protecting children from sexual abuse and exploitation.  For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.