Former coach who posed as a teenage girl to obtain nude photos gets 23 years in prison

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A former assistant high school volleyball coach who was caught with hundreds of images and videos of child pornography was sentenced in federal court on Thursday to 23 years in prison.

Clay Thomas Wolfe, 28, of Junction City, Ohio, pleaded guilty in April to sexually exploiting minors and possession of child pornography. He was arrested in June 2023 while working at New Lexington High School in Perry County, southeast of Columbus.

According to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio, Wolfe had been using the social media app Snapchat since 2018 to pose as a 15-year-old girl named Ally. While posing as Ally, Wolfe obtained hundreds of sexually explicit information. videos and images of small male victims, some as young as 10 years old.

Wolfe solicited child pornography from more than 300 victims, prosecutors say. About 100 of the victims are from multiple states, including Ohio, Pennsylvania and Kentucky.

Authorities began investigating Wolfe in April 2022 when a sixth-grader in Pennsylvania began sharing a nude photo of a classmate that he had received from “Ally,” the news release said. Wolfe would send photos of a young woman’s naked breasts and genitals to convince victims to send him nude and sexually explicit images and videos, authorities say.

When he obtained images, he used them to extort his victims and threatened to send them to family and friends if they did not cooperate, prosecutors say.

In total, Wolfe received approximately 850 images and 570 videos of child pornography. Wolfe was arrested and federally charged in June 2023.