Piqua Child Predator Sentenced For Enticement Of A Child
Tuesday, February 11, 2025, 7:15 A.M. ET. 1 Minute Read, By Art Fletcher: Englebrook Independent News,
TOLEDO, OH.- On Monday, February 10, 2025, Gary Matthew Hughes, 36, of Piqua, Ohio, appeared in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio and was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey J. Helmick to 168 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to Coercion and Enticement of a Minor.
During Monday’s hearing, Judge Helmick also ordered Hughes, upon his release from prison, to serve twenty years of supervised release and pay $114,000 in restitution to his identified victims.
According To The U.S. Attorney’s Office
According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Tracey Tangeman and documents filed and statements made in the District Court, from September and October 2023, Hughes communicated with a purported 7-year-old daughter of an undercover agent. During his plea allocution, Hughes admitted that his intent was to engage in sexual activity with the child.
Following the communications, federal investigators obtained and executed a court-authorized search of Hughes’ residence, where they seized his cellular phone. A subsequent forensic examination of the phone uncovered multiple digital images and video files containing the sexual exploitation and abuse of prepubescent and pubescent children.
The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the U.S. Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.
