Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
A Port Clinton, Ohio, woman was sentenced today to 15 years in prison for production and distribution of child sexual abuse material.
According to court documents, in 2020, Ashley Kolhoff, 22, produced sexually explicit images of the minor victim and posted them to a website dedicated to facilitating child exploitation. Over the course of multiple days, Kolhoff distributed the images of the victim to nine other members of the website while she engaged in a series of graphic conversations discussing the users’ desire to sexually abuse the victim.
Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney Jessica D. Aber for the Eastern District of Virginia; and Special Agent in Charge Raymond Villanueva of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Washington, D.C., made the announcement after sentencing by U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema.
Trial Attorney Whitney Kramer of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) and Assistant U.S. Attorney Seth Schlessinger for the Eastern District of Virginia prosecuted the case.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by U.S. Attorney’s Offices and the CEOS, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.