An Elizabethtown man has been sentenced to 25 years in prison on child pornography and sex trafficking charges.
Matthew Alexander Lyons, 34, was sentenced on Monday to 25 years in prison after pleading guilty to multiple counts of online enticement of a minor, production of child pornography, sex trafficking of minors, and distribution and possession of child pornography, announced Acting United States Attorney Michael A. Bennett.
There is no parole in the federal system.
“The defendant targeted and exploited vulnerable victims and will now spend more than two decades in federal prison and upon release be under close federal supervision for the rest of his life; a substantial sentence and strong message to others who consider engaging in similar conduct,” Bennett said. “As a result of the outstanding work and dedication of AUSA Lawless, the Kentucky Attorney General’s Office, the Radcliff Police Department, the Elizabethtown Police Department, and the United States Secret Service, Kentucky kids are safer and our citizens once again well-served by the men and women of law enforcement.”
According to the plea agreement and other court documents, in April of 2020, the Radcliff Police Department received a call from a grandparent who reported that at least one minor was posting on social media about engaging in sexual activity with an adult in exchange for money.
A Radcliff detective interviewed two 14-year-old boys, seized their mobile devices, and was granted consent to search those devices by the minors’ legal guardians. Based on initial investigative steps, the Radcliff police identified Lyons as the adult with whom the two boys had engaged in sexual activity in exchange for money.
Lyons had a prior conviction in 2008 in Hardin District Court for attempted prohibited use of electronic communication system to procure a minor for sex.
Police obtained and executed a search warrant and seized and searched Lyons’ mobile device and subsequently asked for help with review of the devices from the Kentucky Attorney General’s Office Department of Criminal Investigations (DCI).
A DCI detective conducted a review of Lyons’s Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max and found more than 1,500 images and video files that were identified as known child sexual abuse material stored in a pin-code protected application in a “Frequently Used” folder on Lyons’s iPhone’s main screen.
Further examination of Lyons’s iPhone confirmed Lyons’ communication with at least one 14-year-old boy on a social media app. On or about April 1, 2020, Lyons traveled to a convenience store and met two 14-year-old boys, Bennett said. Lyons picked up the boys in his 2017 Chevrolet Silverado and drove to a Dollar General parking lot where sex acts occurred, and videos were taken, in exchange for money.
During the review of Lyons’s iPhone, the DCI detective also located a chat conversation from February 16, 2020, between Lyons and a 16-year-old boy. During the conversation, Lyons requested, and the boy sent, two photos and two videos of himself engaged in sexually explicit conduct.
Another chat conversation between Lyons and an adult, Robert Alan Thompson, showed that Lyons sent Thompson two photos of actual minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct and revealed the two men discussing their mutual sexual interest in boys.
Thompson, 34, of Hodgenville, was sentenced in late January 2021 to 15 years in federal prison after being convicted for online enticement of a minor and production of child pornography.
Thompson was a math teacher at West Hardin Middle School at the time of his arrest. He joined Hardin County Schools in 2018 as a teacher J.T. Alton Middle School after previously teaching at Bondurant Middle School in Franklin County, where he committed the child porn offenses.
By Ken Howlett, News Director
Contact Ken at ken@k105.com
