COLUMBUS, Ohio — The lead defendant charged in a Scioto County child sex trafficking operation was sentenced to 40 years in prison.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio announced 72-year-old Larry Dean Porter received his sentence in federal court on Tuesday. Porter was also ordered to pay more than $300,000 in restitution to the victims.
A federal grand jury indicted Porter and several of his family members and associates in June 2020. All 11 defendants have since been convicted.
Authorities say Porter’s abuse of women and children spanned numerous decades and involved additional victims other than those identified in the case.
“Larry Dean Porter is a predator who manipulated and abused children and drug-addicted women in southern Ohio for many years. He used force, violence, and threats to coerce these vulnerable victims to engage in sex acts with him,” said U.S. Attorney Kenneth L. Parker. “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 a federal prison.”
Porter exchanged drugs that were obtained in Columbus and elsewhere for sexual access to the children of drug-addicted parents and guardians.
The FBI’s Child Exploitation Task Force began investigating Porter in April 2019 following reports he was involved in abusing male and female minors with the consent of their parents in exchange for drugs.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Porter sexually abused multiple children and produced child pornography that he kept on the flash drives and used extreme methods to conceal them including by burying them in his yard.
Additionally, Porter instructed the drug-addicted parents to abuse the children and recorded it to use as blackmail. He also used other methods of force, such as duct taping and tying women to chairs, burning them with cigarettes and firing guns by their ears, to ensure they continue to comply.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said several of Porter’s co-conspirators took children under the age of 10 to his home on a regular basis to traffic them in exchange for pills. The abuse occurred a few times per week for up to five years.
Porter was arrested in March 2020 during a local human trafficking sting operation by the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office.
After his arrest, Porter’s friends and relatives, including two of his daughters and one of his cousins, attempted to destroy evidence and intimidate witnesses.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said family and friends dug holes to retrieve and attempt to destroy the drives containing child pornography.
Agents also found eight DVDs containing child pornography linked to Porter’s home computer at the home of one of his friends.
One of his cousins discussed in jail calls with Porter their plans to assault and possibly kill a witness they believed was a source.
On Aug. 10, 2022, Porter pleaded guilty to conspiring to engage in sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion, child sex trafficking, and participating in a drug trafficking conspiracy.
Co-defendants to date include: Joshua D. Aldridge (324 months in prison), Charity Rawlins (210 months in prison), Frank E. Andrews (121 months in prison), Ronnie L. Rawlins (63 months in prison), Jonathan David Flagg (60 months in prison), Ralph Albert Aldridge (48 months in prison), Crystal D. Porter (30 months in prison), Denna Sue Porter (three months in prison), and Erroll Wayne Porter (six months of home detention).