DENVER — A 29-year-old woman in Aurora was sentenced to more than three decades in prison after she pleaded guilty to charges of producing and distributing child sexual abuse material.
On Thursday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado announced that Charlyna Butterworth was sentenced to 36 years behind bars, followed by supervised release.
Her sentencing came after she pleaded guilty to one count of production of child pornography and one count of distribution of child pornography.
While federal statutes use the phrase "child pornography," the term "child sexual abuse material," or CSAM, is preferred when describing these cases since it better reflects the abuse, the Department of Justice said in 2023.
All of the children in this case were under the age of 5. Butterworth's plea agreement references one as an infant, one as a 4-year-old and one as a 2-year-old.
The children were all entrusted to Butterworth's care at the time.
According to her 23-page plea agreement, between Jan. 3 and 7, 2024 an FBI agent working undercover was invited to a chat group titled "True Perverts" on a platform called Wire, which is based in Switzerland and provides end-to-end encrypted messaging. The group, which discussed and shared CSAM, had three administrators and 13 members, including one user named "Knotty queen," who was later identified as Butterworth, the document reads.
She shared a disturbing image and video of her and one of the minors. The FBI agent then began messaging her to gather evidence for the case.
On Jan. 7, 2024 the FBI used law enforcement sensitive facial recognition software, as well as a screenshot from Butterworth's Telegram profile, to identify two Facebook accounts that appeared to look like her. They were able to confirm one of the accounts was hers and obtained its IP address, which led them to Aurora, the plea agreement reads.
The defendant was living at the home with her father. Law enforcement conducted a search warrant on Jan. 8 and collected her phone. She admitted to sharing the image and video in the "True Perverts" group.
Her phone contained two videos of CSAM and seven photos of CSAM. They were taken between Nov. 11, 2023 and Jan. 6, 2024, the plea agreement reads. Investigators determined she had distributed the items to about 19 people.
This case was prosecuted as part of Project Safe Childhood, which was launched in May 2006 by the DOJ, to combat child sexual exploitation and abuse.
“This is a serious sentence for a serious crime,” said U.S. Attorney for the District of Colorado Peter McNeilly. “I am grateful that this individual is no longer in a position to harm another child.”
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