Written by A 51-year-old Columbus man, who served as a volunteer teacher and youth minister in Worthington, has been sentenced to more than 13 years in federal prison for his involvement in child pornography crimes.
Andrew Brown, a Jamaican citizen who had overstayed his visa, was sentenced to 160 months (13 years and four months) in federal prison. The sentencing follows his guilty plea to charges of distributing, receiving, and possessing child sexual abuse material.
The investigation revealed that Brown was a “prolific” offender. When federal agents arrived at his apartment to execute a search warrant, they found him actively downloading and exchanging illegal images and videos of children. In total, authorities discovered 15 terabytes of data across his devices, including more than 40,000 files of minors engaged in explicit sex acts.
The case was particularly alarming because Brown used his positions of trust at the Worthington Adventist Academy and the Worthington Seventh-Day Adventist Church to facilitate his crimes. Investigators found that Brown used the church and school’s computer systems to download illegal material while volunteering. In fact, the church’s IP address was flagged by law enforcement as the third most active IP address in all of Ohio for downloading child pornography between October 2023 and April 2024.
”Brown placed himself in a position of trust with children as a religion teacher and youth minister,” federal prosecutors stated, noting that the community is safer with him behind bars.
In addition to his prison sentence, Brown will face a lifetime of supervised release once he completes his term. Because of his immigration status, he also faces the possibility of deportation proceedings following his incarceration.