Bartow Man Gets 22 Years For Child Sex Exploitation

ROME, GA -- A Bartow County man was sentenced last week to 22 years in prison a little more than two years after he was arrested on child sexual exploitation charges.

Christopher Alan Love of Euharlee pleaded guilty last week before United States District Court Judge Harold Murphy handed down the sentence.

Love also received 10 years of supervised release, Coosa Valley News Reports.

Love's co-defendant, Erin Molly Rafferty, pleaded guilty in December 2016 and received an 18-year sentence in prison, the paper notes.

Bartow County Sheriff's Office investigators in December 2015 arrested and charged Love with 13 counts of sexual exploitation of a child and one count of possession of methamphetamine while Rafferty faced 13 counts of party to a crime of sexual exploitation of a child and one count of possession of meth.

The investigation started when a sheriff’s detective was sent a tip from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s Internet Crimes Against Children Unit regarding child pornography being downloaded by Love and Rafferty at a residence in Euharlee.

Within days of receiving the tip, Bartow sheriff’s investigators were contacted by a citizen alleging the same man and woman were in possession of child pornography.

Another tip came into the sheriff's office on Monday, Dec. 21, 2015, that stated a juvenile in the neighborhood was possibly in danger or would soon be in danger of ”being sexually exploited by the couple,” the sheriff’s office previously said said.

A search warrant was executed for the home on Milam Bridge Road by Bartow sheriff’s detectives and agents with U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

The sheriff’s office said both Love and Rafferty allegedly admitted to downloading and watching child pornography together.

Photo: Christopher Alan Love. Image via Bartow County Jail