COLUMBUS, Ohio — Larry Dean Porter, a 72-year-old man from Wheelersburg, Ohio, was sentenced to 480 months in prison for his role in a child sex trafficking operation in Scioto County. Porter was the lead of 11 defendants charged in the case, all of whom have since been convicted.
Porter was found guilty of using force, violence, and threats to coerce vulnerable victims into engaging in sex acts with him. In addition to sexually assaulting children himself, he instructed drug-addicted parents to sexually abuse children and recorded it to use as blackmail. Porter also used other methods of force to ensure his victims complied with his various sexual demands and remained silent about his crimes.
The FBI’s Child Exploitation Task Force began investigating Porter in April 2019 following reports that he was involved in sexually abusing male and female minors with the consent of the minors’ parents in exchange for illegal drugs. The investigation revealed that Porter’s physical and sexual abuse of women and children in Scioto County spanned numerous decades and involved additional victims other than those identified in the charged offenses in this case.
Porter pleaded guilty on Aug. 10, 2022, to conspiring to engage in sex trafficking by force, fraud, or coercion, child sex trafficking, and participating in a drug trafficking conspiracy. Porter was also ordered today to pay more than $300,000 in restitution to the victims.
Co-defendants sentenced to date include Joshua D. Aldridge, Charity Rawlins, Frank E. Andrews, Ronnie L. Rawlins, Jonathan David Flagg, Ralph Albert Aldridge, Crystal D. Porter, Denna Sue Porter, and Erroll Wayne Porter.
U.S. Attorney Kenneth L. Parker stated that “Larry Dean Porter is a predator who manipulated and abused children and drug-addicted women in southern Ohio for many years. Though no sentence can undo the indescribable, despicable harm he caused, it is fitting that he will spend the rest of his life where he belongs – in federal prison.”
