A 35-year-old man from Granbury, Texas, has been sentenced to 50 years in federal prison for filming himself molesting a 9-year-old girl, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Leigha Simonton on Thursday.
Stephen Wayne Ashley Jr. was charged in March and pleaded guilty in May to sexual exploitation of a child and possession of child pornography. He was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman to 600 months in prison – 360 months as to the sexual exploitation count and 240 months as to the child pornography count, to run consecutively.
According to court documents, the investigation began when the New South Wales Police in Australia began looking into an individual who shared links containing child pornography on Twitter. One of the links, which contained over 1,600 files of mostly child pornography, was traced to Mr. Ashley.
On March 11, agents executed a search warrant at Mr. Ashley’s residence, where they found Mr. Ashley’s phone. On the phone, they found a hidden folder containing videos of Mr. Ashley sexually molesting a 9-year-old girl.
After being Mirandized, Mr. Ashley admitted to officers that he began filming the child when she was 7 and continued to do so for a period of years.
Homeland Security Investigations’ Dallas Field Office conducted the investigation with the assistance of the New South Wales Police and the Hood County District Attorney’s Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney Aisha Saleem prosecuted the case.
Mr. Ashley was also ordered to pay $13,500 in restitution to several victims and to register as a sex offender.
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Key Facts
- State: Texas
- Category: Child Sex Crimes
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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