MUSKINGUM COUNTY, Ohio — The Muskingum County Prosecutor’s Office announced that three local men pleaded guilty to sex crimes involving children.
The Muskingum County Sheriff’s Office says that in March, officials received a report through the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) of suspected child sexual abuse materials.
Detectives traced the material back to 31-year-old Timothy Wint of Dresden.
The investigation showed that Wint uploaded and shared videos of children being sexually abused via the Kik app.
Kik is a social media app used for messaging.
Wint pleaded guilty to one second-degree felony count of pandering obscenity involving a minor.
Due to the nature of the images and the age of the victims, eight years of prison is recommended in Wint’s case.
Similarly, in another incident, ICAC alerted the Muskingum County Sheriff’s Office of material being uploaded on a phone to the Verizon Cloud.
Detectives then traced that account back to 32-year-old Anthony McDonald of Zanesville.
Officials say the defendant, who was previously convicted of pandering sexually oriented material involving a minor in 2017, admitted that he has an addiction to child pornography.
McDonald pleaded guilty to two second-degree felony counts of child pornography.
Due to the number of images, the ages of the victims, and the defendant’s previous conviction, the defense and prosecution reached a joint recommendation of 10 years in prison at the time of sentencing.
In June, the Zanesville Police Department learned through ICAC of child sexual abuse material that a user in Zanesville uploaded to Flickr, a website for photo sharing.
Detectives connected the image of a nude child to an account run by 50-year-old Derek Bennett of Zanesville.
Bennett pleaded guilty to one second-degree felony count of pandering obscenity involving a minor.
Attorneys agreed to a joint recommendation of three years in prison at the time of sentencing.
“Our office and local law enforcement are committed to aggressively pursuing and prosecuting anyone exploiting children,” Prosecutor Ron Welch said. “While we cannot undo the harm to the children that have been victimized, we can, through imprisonment, prevent these predators from harming other vulnerable victims.”