COLUMBUS, Ohio – Devin Bailey, a 27-year-old resident of Millersport, Ohio, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court to 100 months in prison for offenses involving child pornography and sextortion.
Bailey’s sentencing comes after he admitted to distributing child pornography of a minor and engaging in sextortion, where he used explicit images to coerce an adult victim into providing more explicit photographs of herself. According to court documents, Bailey employed multiple online personas to solicit sexually explicit photos from the adult victim, subsequently threatening her with the images he obtained.
Moreover, Bailey sent messages containing child pornography to the adult victim, who recognized one of the girls depicted in the images as approximately 12 years old at the time. The minor victim had unknowingly sent explicit images and videos to what she believed was a female in Florida, unaware that this person was actually another fabricated identity of Bailey’s. Bailey retained the child pornography for over five years before using it to manipulate the adult victim into providing further explicit content.
Bailey’s threats extended to distributing the child pornography involving the known minor victim to the adult victim’s family members and online unless she complied with his demands.
Between May and June 2022, Bailey intensified his harassment of the adult victim using various email addresses, cell phone numbers, and Snapchat accounts. His messages included threats to release pornographic images of both the adult and minor victims unless new explicit photos or videos were provided. When the victim hinted at involving law enforcement, Bailey dismissed the threat, asserting that his communication methods were untraceable.
A forensic examination of Bailey’s electronic devices uncovered approximately 200 images and 20 videos of child sexual abuse material.
Bailey was federally charged in February 2023 and entered a guilty plea in October 2023, leading to today’s sentencing.
The case was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio.
