A former Christ Hospital employee was convicted and sentenced Monday morning for pandering child pornography, with Judge Wende Cross sentencing 32-year-old Benjamin Naylor to seven to nine-and-a-half years in prison.
Naylor pleaded guilty to eight counts of pandering sexually oriented matter involving a minor and one count of illegal use of a minor or impaired person in a state of nudity.
He was confronted by Predator Poachers outside of Christ Hospital when he still worked there as a scheduler.
Cincinnati Police Detective Mary Braun testified in the courtroom about what she and her team saw on Naylor’s phone, stating: “I’ve been doing this kind of investigations for a long time, and I will say that the images that Mr. Naylor had were some of the absolute worst I’ve ever seen, and the chats were alarming.”
Braun continued: “I’ve never seen chats like that. I would defer to you, of course, for sentencing, but I just wanted you to know that it was some of the most disturbing content that my unit has come across.”
According to a criminal complaint, a Regional Electronics and Computer Investigations detective wrote that Naylor was in possession of a pornographic image of a boy and had photos and videos of child sex abuse material on his cell phone, which he intended to distribute.
During the 40-minute confrontation with Predator Poachers, which was streamed live on the group’s Kick account, Naylor admitted to trading child pornography involving “babies and toddlers.”
In online messages with the Predator Poachers decoy, Naylor said “Age is just a number.”
Naylor apologized in court and accepted responsibility for his actions, stating: “I just wanted to say how truly and deeply sorry I am for what I did. I’m not making any excuses.”
Assistant Prosecutor Elyse Deters argued Naylor’s disabilities did not explain his interest in children.
The original outlet reported that prosecutors said Naylor wanted child rape to be legalized.
His attorney sought probation, citing a traumatic brain injury Naylor suffered as an infant, developmental disabilities and an autism spectrum disorder diagnosis.
The injury caused Naylor’s speech to be delayed and he was later diagnosed with autism and an intellectual disability, and he has received services from Hamilton County Department of Developmental Disabilities since he was 3 years old.
Defense attorney John O’Shea noted that his client “gets through life” with the help of his mom and stepfather, and has never had a significant other, adding: “He was actually duped online by someone posing as his, quote, ‘girlfriend,’ and he gave this person $14,000, which was all the money he had saved at that point.”
Judge Wende Cross emphasized that distributing child sexual abuse material repeatedly harms the children depicted, stating: “Every time that material is viewed, copied, or passed along, that child is victimized again.”
In the viral moment that preceded his arrest,
Predator Poachers confronted Naylor outside his workplace following online interactions with someone who Naylor allegedly believed was a 13-year-old boy.
Predator Poachers founder Alex Rosen said the group first encountered Naylor on Reddit, where Naylor allegedly messaged their 13-year-old boy decoy before moving the conversation to a messaging platform.
Naylor worked as a scheduler at Christ Hospital and did not have direct contact with patients, and a spokesperson with the Christ Hospital Network said he was terminated immediately upon learning of his arrest.
Naylor will be required to register as a sex offender for 25 years.