Ohio man, girlfriend accused of coercing teen to send explicit photos, videos plead guilty

The Junction City couple are accused of coercing a girl into creating and sending them child sexual abuse material.

As part of the scheme, Brickhouse reportedly told the girl he loved her and wanted to marry her. Brickhouse and Darling also allegedly lied and told the teen his mother was fatally ill and the teen needed to create child pornography to help pay for her medical treatment.

Brickhouse is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 9 and Darling is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 22.

While living at a halfway house in Warren County, Brickhouse began communicating in June 2022 with a 13-year-old girl on the social media app Snapchat, according to court documents. He reportedly asked the teen to send him sexually explicit material.

Darling also sent him videos and images of child pornography via Snapchat.

Brickhouse continued to communicate with the 13-year-old after he was arrested for violating his parole and was in custody at an Ohio Department of Rehabilitation &Corrections facilities, according to a statement of facts in the federal case.

“While Brickhouse was in custody, he conspired with Darling to pressure (the 13-year-old) into producing more child pornography,” court records read.

Credit: Montgomery County Jail

Credit: Montgomery County Jail

Brickhouse created a fictional person, Michael Jones, for the victim to send the child pornography, according to court documents. Darling reportedly posed as Brickhouse’s mother and aunt as part of the scheme.

Once the victim sent the couple the requested child sexual abuse material, Brickhouse and Darling distributed it to others, included registered sex offenders, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Brickhouse also allegedly coerced a 10-year-old girl into making child sexual abuse material and sending it to him on Snapchat in a different scheme, also while at the Warren County halfway house.

He is a registered sex offender with previous convictions for sexually assaulting children, including a victim as young as 3, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.