BALTIMORE, MD—A former Gilman teacher will be spending more than three decades behind bars.

This week, U.S. District Judge James K. Bredar sentenced Christopher Kenji Bendann, 40, of Baltimore, to 35 years in federal prison, followed by lifetime supervised release.

After a three-day trial, on August 28, 2024, a federal jury found the defendant guilty of five counts of sexual exploitation of a child, three counts of possession of child-sexual-abuse material, and one count of cyberstalking.

Erek L. Barron, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland, announced the sentence with Special Agent in Charge William J. DelBagno, of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Baltimore Field Office; Chief Robert McCullough, Baltimore County Police Department; and Baltimore County State’s Attorney Scott Shellenberger.

According to the evidence presented at trial, from approximately September 16, 2017, to February 9, 2019, the defendant — a former teacher at The Gilman School in Baltimore — produced multiple videos of a minor male. Additionally, Bendann engaged in sexually explicit conduct with the minor male who was one of his students. The victim was 16 and 17 years old at this time.

Law enforcement found these same videos stored on the defendant’s iCloud, resulting in a possession of child-sexual-abuse-material charge. In addition, as detailed at trial, between May and December 2022, the defendant cyberstalked the same victim by sending him electronic cellphone messages. Bendann demanded that the victim remain in contact and send him explicit images of himself. The defendant threatened to make sexually explicit images of the victim public if he did not comply. Evidence at trial also established that on February 3, 2023, the date of the defendant’s arrest, he possessed multiple depictions of child-sexual-abuse material on multiple electronic devices.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.