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Clark County man sentenced to 22 years in prison for producing child pornography by paying adults to abuse minors on live social media apps

By
Southern District of Ohio, Press Release

Dustin Johnson, 38, of New Carlisle, was sentenced in U.S. District Court to 22 years in prison for creating child pornography by paying adult females to sexually abuse minor girls live on social media chats.

According to court documents, in June 2022, Johnson paid an adult female to engage in sexually explicit conduct with a prepubescent girl live on social media. Johnson recorded the communications with a screen recorder app, saving video recordings approximately 10 minutes and 17 minutes in length on separate days in June.

After diligent investigation, law enforcement was able to locate the adult female and the child, who were located overseas. The child victim was 5 years old. Local law enforcement was able to remove the child from the adult female offender’s custody.

Johnson engaged in similar social media chats with other adult females, who at Johnson’s request sexually abused individuals who appeared to be children, on live video chat for Johnson to view.  Johnson also engaged in online chats discussing the possibility of meeting up with other adults who had children so that he could engage in sexually explicit conduct with their children.

Investigators discovered more than 24,000 child pornography files on Johnson’s hard drives. The pornography included more than 500 files depicting bestiality, at least 400 files involving violence or masochistic abuse and more than 3,500 pornographic files depicting infants and toddlers.

Johnson was arrested in February 2023 and pleaded guilty in February 2024 to producing child pornography.

Kenneth L. Parker, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, and Elena Iatarola, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Cincinnati Division, announced the sentence imposed by Senior U.S. District Court Judge Thomas M. Rose. Assistant United States Attorney Christina E. Mahy is representing the United States in this case.

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