A man from suburban Chicago has been sentenced to 37 years in federal prison after admitting to sexually exploiting nearly 100 children through social media.
According to court records, Shaun Healy, 45, used Snapchat in 2022 to contact and persuade young girls to create and send him sexually explicit images and videos. Healy often pretended to be a young girl himself in order to gain the trust of his victims. Authorities said he gave detailed instructions about the conduct he wanted them to record and send.
Prosecutors stated that Healy also threatened the children with exposure, telling them he would publish the images and videos they sent if they did not comply with his demands for more material.
Healy was arrested at his home in Elburn, Illinois, in December 2022. During a search of his phone, law enforcement found a password-protected album containing dozens of folders organized by child victims’ Snapchat usernames. Each folder included the username, an image of the child, and a collection of explicit content that Healy had instructed them to produce.
Healy pleaded guilty last year to child exploitation charges. U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman handed down the sentence on February 12, 2026, during a hearing in Chicago’s federal court.
The sentencing was announced by Andrew S. Boutros, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and Matthew J. Scarpino, Special Agent-in-Charge of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Chicago. The Illinois Attorney General’s Office’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force also assisted in the investigation.
“Defendant is a child predator,” Assistant U.S. Attorneys Saqib Mohammad Hussain and Elly Moheb argued in the government’s sentencing memorandum. “And not just a child predator, but one who ruthlessly sexually exploited young girls and prided himself on it. What defendant made these children do will affect them for the rest of their lives in ways that we cannot appreciate.”
The case is part of Project Safe Childhood (PSC), which coordinates federal, state, and local resources against child sexual exploitation while providing support services for victims.
Individuals who believe they are victims of sexual exploitation are encouraged to contact the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at https://www.missingkids.org/ or by calling 1-800-843-5678; this service is available at all times.
More information about efforts by Homeland Security Investigations can be found at Know2Protect.gov.
