Perry County Man Sentenced To Prison Sexually Exploiting Minors

Wednesday, November 6, 2024, 6:00 A.M. ET. 2 Minute Read, By Art Fletcher: Englebrook Independent News,

COLUMBUS, OH.- On Thursday, October 31, 2024, Clay Thomas Wolfe, 28, of Junction City, Ohio, a former high school volleyball coach, appeared in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio and was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Michael H. Watson to 276 months in federal prison for his previously entered guilty pleas of Sexual Exploitation of Minors; and Possession of Child Pornography.

     Following an investigation, Wolfe was taken into custody and criminally charged in June 2023 and pleaded guilty to both charges in Federal Court in April 2024.

According To U.S. Attorney Kenneth L. Parker

     According to U.S. Attorney Kenneth L. Parker and evidence filed with the district court, beginning in 2018, Wolfe solicited child pornography from more than 300 victims over the mobile social media application, “Snapchat.” Federal authorities identified around 100 exploitation victims who provided Wolfe with sexual content. Agents further identified the victims as minors from across multiple states, including Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky.

    During his guise, Wolfe pretended on Snapchat to be a 15-year-old girl named “Ally” who resided in Ohio and used this persona to solicit child pornography from primarily middle school and high school-aged boys.

     Wolfe’s Snapchat account also contained sexually explicit digital images and video files of boys as young as ten and eleven years old.

     An investigation was launched in April 2022 when Pennsylvania law enforcement officials learned that a sixth-grade student was sharing a nude digital image of a classmate that he had received from Wolfe while Wolfe was acting as “Ally.”

     During Wolfe’s online persona, Wolfe sent male victims digital images and video files of prepubescent girls’ naked breasts and genitalia that he found on adult pornography sites or public social media platforms. He would then utilize that content to entice young boys he chatted with online to send the content of their own, depicting sexually explicit images of the boys, some as young as twelve years old, engaged in sexually explicit conduct such as bestiality, masturbation, and sexual acts including oral and anal penetration.

     Wolfe would also extort the young boys by threatening to send the nude digital images of his victims to their friends and family unless they sent him additional sexually explicit images. In total, Wolfe received around 850 digital images and 570 video files.