COLUMBUS, Ohio — Larry Dean Porter, 72, of Wheelersburg, Ohio was sentenced to 40 years in prison, Tuesday, for his role in a child sex trafficking operation. The judge also ordered him to pay $300,000 in restitution to the victims.
The FBI’s Child Exploitation Task Force began investigating Porter in 2019. Porter was arrested and indicted by a federal jury in 2020 along with 10 other co-defendants who have since been convicted. In 2022, Porter pleaded guilty to sex trafficking, child sex trafficking, and drug trafficking charges.
The United States Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of Ohio said his abuse took place over several decades and likely had more victims than those named 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 sexually abused several children and produced child pornography that he went to what the U.S. Attorney’s Office says were extreme measures to hide.
Porter also instructed drug-addicted parents to sexually abuse children, recording it to use as blackmail, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. He would also use several methods of physical force to get his victims to comply with his sexual demands and to remain silent about the abuse.
Porter’s co-defendants participated by trafficking the victims, destroying evidence, and intimidating possible witnesses. Many of the co-defendants were family and friends.
