Sex offender arrested with child sexual abuse material at MIA, police say

MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Florida. — A man previously convicted of child rape was arrested Wednesday at Miami International Airport after authorities said they found two files containing child sexual abuse material on his phone.

Christopher Hammond, 50, of Herriman, Utah, faces two felony charges in South Florida. He is on the Utah sex offender registry after a 2001 conviction in Colorado for sexual assault of a child under 15 by a person in a position of trust; he has served more than five years in prison.

He now faces a longer prison sentence in the Sunshine State after authorities said a search of his cellphone revealed two images showing naked girls, one of whom was younger than 8 years old.

An arrest report from the Miami-Dade Police Department says that upon arrival at MIA Wednesday morning, border agents sent Hammond for “strict secondary” screening after he was flagged as a sex offender.

There, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents found the two photos in a hidden folder, the report said.

The report does not indicate where Hammond was from.

Police said Hammond told officers there was no child sexual abuse material on his cellphone, but claimed he saw it “pop up” randomly when he was browsing on the Internet looking for “normal” pornography.

He then requested an attorney, the report states.

As of Thursday, Hammond was being held at Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on $5,000 bail, according to online jail records.