Editor's note: This article contains graphic details that might be disturbing to some readers.
A 23-year-old man pleaded guilty in New York for producing child sexual abuse material after authorities say he had sexually explicit conversations with a 15-year-old Franklin girl.
Donovan Chaplin was convicted in April 2022 for sexual abuse in the first degree involving a victim less than 11-years-old, according to the Department of Justice. While serving probation for that crime, he began an online conversation with the 15-year-old girl living in Franklin.
The DOJ says that Chaplin told the girl that he was a minor, talked to her for about two-and-a-half months and persuaded the girl to take and send sexually explicit pictures of herself.
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The Franklin girl's family eventually found the conversation and reported the chat to law enforcement, according to the DOJ. After the FBI executed a search warrant at Chaplin's house, Chaplin admitted to chatting with the Franklin girl.
The DOJ says that after the FBI executed the search warrant on his account on the chatting application, they found that he was have sexually explicit conversations with about 40 other minors as young as 13-years-old between November 2022 and February 2023.
Chaplin had asked 23 of the minors he was talking to take and send sexually explicit pictures of themselves to send to him, according to the DOJ.
Chaplin is scheduled to be sentenced on March 22, 2024, according to the DOJ. He faces a minimum of 25 years and a maximum of 50 years in prison.
