MUNCIE, IN — A northwestern Indiana man has been accused of exchanging lewd photos and videos with a 14-year-old girl from Delaware County.
John A. Benedict, now 26 — of Crown Point in Lake County — was charged on Friday, June 5, with vicarious sexual gratification, a Level 5 felony carrying up to six years in prison.
According to an affidavit, Benedict’s contact with the local juvenile took place between August 2019 and December 2020, on social platforms including Snapchat and Instagram.
Some of the images exchanged showed the genitalia of Benedict and the girl, the court document said.
An investigator with the Delaware County Sheriff’s Department wrote that messages recovered showed that Benedict repeatedly asked the girl to send him images of her disrobing and performing sex acts.
He also repeatedly referred to the juvenile as “Mommy” in their online exchanges, the affidavit said.
The court document said investigators had recovered 11 “sexually explicit” images the girl sent to Benedict on Instagram, and 61 images of the girl sent via Snapchat.
Interviewed by police in December 2020, Benefact reportedly said he had been “talking to the girl” for “the last few years” and indicated they had each sent more than 50 explicit images of themselves to one another.
He reportedly acknowledged being aware that the girl was 14 at the time and said he had sent “two pictures of his penis” to the juvenile in the “last few days.”
The charging documents filed in Delaware Circuit Court 5 on Friday do not state why the formal case was not filed for more than five years after Benedict was interviewed by investigators.
A trial date in the case has not yet been set.
Indiana court records reflect no prior charges against Benedict.
Douglas Walker is a news reporter at The Star Press. Contact him at 765-213-5851 or at dwalker@muncie.gannett.com
This article originally appeared on Muncie Star Press: Deputies: Crown Point man traded lewd photos with Delaware County teen
Reporting by Douglas Walker, Muncie Star Press / Muncie Star Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Douglas Walker, Muncie Star Press | USA TODAY Network
