COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – The man who prosecutors said led a Scioto County child sex trafficking ring was sentenced to 40 years in prison Tuesday.

Larry Dean Porter, 72, of Wheelersburg, Ohio, was one of 11 defendants indicted by a grand jury in June 2020.

According to the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio Kenneth Parker, Porter had sexual relations with young children with the consent of the children’s parents, giving the parents drugs in exchange.

“Larry Dean Porter is a predator who manipulated and abused children and drug-addicted women in southern Ohio for many years,” Parker said in a press release. “He used force, violence, and threats to coerce these vulnerable victims to engage in sex acts with him.”

Porter pleaded guilty in August 2022 to conspiring to engage in sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion, child sex trafficking, and participating in a drug trafficking conspiracy. In addition to his prison sentence, Porter was ordered to pay more than $300,000 in restitution to his victims.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Porter had physically and sexually abused women and children in Scioto County for several decades.

The FBI’s Child Exploitation Task Force started investigating Porter in April 2019. He was arrested in March 2020 as part of a human trafficking sting operation by the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office.

In addition to the abuse, Porter also is convicted of producing child sexual abuse material he kept on flash drives, some of which he buried in the yard around his house in order to keep them hidden. Porter is also accused of forcing the drug-addicted parents to abuse children, recording the actions to use as blackmail. The U.S. Attorney also said Porter and his co-defendants threatened potential witnesses and attempted to destroy evidence containing child sexual abuse material.

Others sentenced in the case include:

  • Joshua D. Aldridge – 27 years in prison
  • Charity Rawlins – 17 ½ years in prison
  • Frank E. Andrews — 10 years, 1 month in prison
  • Ronnie L. Rawlins – 5 years, 3 months in prison
  • Jonathan David Flagg – 5 years in prison
  • Ralph Albert Aldridge – 4 years in prison
  • Crystal D. Porter – 2 ½ years in prison
  • Denna Sue Porter – 3 months in prison
  • Erroll Wayne Porter – 6 months of home detention

All 11 defendants in the case have either pleaded guilty or been convicted.