HENDERSON, Ky (WEHT) – An Evansville man was sentenced to five years in federal prison after pleading guilty to distribution of child sexual abuse material.
Court documents say a social network dating application called “Skout” reported a chat session to the FBI and Evansville Police Department on September 17, 2021. Authorities say participants in this chat session discussed the sexual abuse of children. Following a months-long investigation, authorities say they identified Ricky Adams, 33, as one of the participants in the chat.
According to court documents, Adams made claims to other chat participants that he was sexually active with “his children,” ages 13, 12, 9 and 6. Authorities say Adams did not actually have any access to children at the time, however he sent “at least two” images depicting minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct during the chat session.
“This defendant joined others online to share heinous images depicting the sexual abuse of children,” said United States Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana, Zachary A. Myers “Those who are gratified by the sexual exploitation of the most vulnerable of victims are a tremendous danger to our communities. We will continue to work tirelessly with our partners at the FBI and Evansville Police Department to identify these criminals and send them to prison, where our children are out of their reach.”
In addition to his prison sentence, a judge ordered that Adams be supervised by the U.S. Probation Office for 5 years following his release.
