CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Jake Ross paid a mother in the Philippines to sexually abuse her children while he watched it live, 8,800 miles away.
Now he will be paying with the rest of his life.
On Friday, the McDowell County man was sentenced to 55 years in prison for his conviction on a half-dozen child pornography charges. Chief U.S. District Judge Martin Reidinger of Asheville also added a lifetime of court supervision should the 47-year-old Ross live long enough to serve out his term.
The sentence is the longest ever handed down in a child pornography case by the federal courts in the Asheville division of the Western District of North Carolina.
In a statement following Reidinger’s decision, U.S. Attorney Dena King of Charlotte said Ross’ punishment “reflects the depravity of his actions.”
“These types of crimes that prey on our children sicken me,” King said.
Prosecutors say Ross, of Marion, was a purveyor in the disturbing world of “webcam sex tourism,” in which pornography from mostly developing countries is livestreamed on social media platforms around the globe.
Ross, according to court documents, connected regularly with the Filipino mother on WhatsApp video chats. Federal investigators say they found 28 pornographic screenshots from those chats stored on Ross’ phone. A check of the defendant’s Google accounts uncovered other screen grabs of livestreamed abuse of children.
Ross was arrested in July 2020. He was convicted by an Asheville jury in March.
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