Ohio man given 30 years for sexually exploiting Chicagoland girl he met online

CHICAGO (WGN) — An Ohio man will spend three decades in prison for sexually exploiting a Chicagoland girl he met online in 2020.

27-year-old Andrew Boltz, a Kenton, Ohio, resident, who was convicted on exploitation and child pornography charges by a federal jury in 2023, was handed a 30-year prison sentence during a hearing in federal court, the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Northern District of Illinois announced Thursday.

According to prosecutors, in 2020, Boltz began communicating with a girl who was only 16 years old using the social media app Omegle.

Boltz continued the conversations with the victim over text messages and through the app Snapchat and during their conversations, prosecutors said Boltz enticed the victim into sending him sexually explicit images of herself.

Prosecutors said Boltz even instructed the girl on what type of sexually explicit conduct should be portrayed in the images.

Boltz was convicted on four counts of sexual exploitation of a child and one count of receipt of child pornography on Oct 10, 2023, following a six-day trial in Chicago that included testimony from the victim.

The app Omegle was an online video chat service that would pair users with strangers at random. It was eventually shut down about a month after Boltz’s conviction following years of mounting abuse claims.

Bolt’z sentence, which was handed down by U.S. District Judge John Robert Blakey on Friday, was the maximum possible punishment for his crimes.

Authorities did not provide a booking photo for Boltz.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Northern District of Illinois urges anyone who may be a victim of sexual exploitation or worries that others may be victims, to contact the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children by logging on to www.missingkids.com or by calling 1-800-843-5678.