COLUMBUS, Ohio — A Columbus man who volunteered as a teacher and youth minister in Worthington has been sentenced to more than 13 years in federal prison after investigators uncovered tens of thousands of files containing child sexual abuse material on his devices.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Andrew Brown, 51, was sentenced Thursday in federal court in Columbus to 160 months in prison after pleading guilty to distributing, receiving and possessing child sexual abuse material.
Federal prosecutors said Brown, a Jamaican national who overstayed his visa in the United States, possessed approximately 15 terabytes of child sexual abuse material across multiple devices.
Investigators with the Franklin County Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force first identified Brown after his internet activity was flagged during monitoring of peer-to-peer file-sharing networks used to distribute illegal material. Authorities said the IP address linked to Brown was identified as the most active address in Ohio downloading child sexual abuse material through those networks.
According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and federal prosecutors, agents executed a search warrant at Brown’s apartment and discovered he was actively downloading and exchanging images and videos of children being sexually abused when they arrived.
Officials said some of the material involved infants and toddlers.
“This defendant… was such a prolific perpetrator that when agents arrived at his apartment to execute a search warrant, he was at his computer actively downloading and exchanging images and videos of children being sexually abused,” said Dominick S. Gerace II, according to the Justice Department.
Gerace also said investigators found Brown had placed himself in positions of trust with children, volunteering as a religion teacher and youth minister.
The Justice Department said Brown volunteered at Worthington Adventist Academy and Worthington Seventh-day Adventist Church. Investigators determined Brown also used a computer at those locations to download child sexual abuse material when he was not at home.
According to federal authorities, the IP address associated with the church and school was identified as the third most active address in Ohio downloading child pornography.
Court documents state that between October 2023 and April 2024, Brown possessed more than 40,000 files depicting minors engaged in sex acts.
Brown was charged through a federal bill of information and pleaded guilty in March 2025, according to the Justice Department.
Federal prosecutors say the case was investigated by the FBI and the Franklin County ICAC Task Force and prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio.
Authorities said Brown will serve his 160-month federal sentence in prison before facing potential immigration consequences upon completion of his sentence.