A Granbury man was sentenced to 50 years in federal prison on Thursday for taping himself and assaulting a 9-year-old child, according to Leigha Simonton, the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Texas.
Stephen Wayne Ashley, Jr., 35, was indicted in March and pled guilty in May to sexual exploitation of a child and possession of child pornography. U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman sentenced him to 600 months in prison on Thursday, with 360 months for sexual exploitation and 240 months for child pornography, to be served consecutively. Judge Pittman also ordered the defendant to pay $13,500 in reparations to many victims and register as a sex offender.
“This defendant chose to repeatedly sexually exploit a child and then made a conscious decision to film himself while committing these heinous crimes,” said HSI Dallas Assistant Special Agent in Charge Jesse Woods. “HSI is grateful for the collaboration of all our law enforcement partners for their role in this investigation, ensuring that this individual will never harm an innocent child again.”
According to court documents, the inquiry began when the New South Wales Police in Australia started looking into someone who published links to child pornography on Twitter (now known as X). One of the URLs, which contained over 1,600 files of predominantly child pornography, was tracked back to Mr Ashley.
On March 11, 2024, agents executed a search warrant at Mr. Ashley’s home on the 500 block of Smart Strike Trl in Granbury, where they discovered his phone. On the phone, they discovered a hidden folder with videos of Mr. Ashley sexually assaulting a 9-year-old girl.
After being Mirandized, Mr. Ashley revealed to officers that he began filming the girl when she was seven years old and continued to do so for several years.
The investigation was conducted by Homeland Security Investigations’ Dallas Field Office, with cooperation from New South Wales Police and the Hood County District Attorney’s Office. Assistant United States Attorney Aisha Saleem prosecuted the case.