COLUMBUS, Ohio – Richard (Tyler) Campbell, 36, of Columbus, was sentenced in U.S. District Court today to 300 months in prison for child exploitation and pornography crimes.
Campbell is one of five defendants implicated in a child pornography investigation that began with cyber tipline reports to the Franklin County Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). Other defendants include Christian Toms and Carson Bigham, who were sentenced in recent months to 420 months and 80 months in prison respectively. According to court documents, between December 2024 and February 2025, Campbell solicited the sexual abuse of a minor victim. He also posed online as both an adult with access to a minor and as a minor himself. Campbell distributed child pornography to other individuals, including three of the other defendants. He told others he was looking for someone to have sexual relations with both him and his fictitious son, claiming the minor in the sexual abuse materials was his son.
Forensic review of the child pornography led investigators to Toms, who was sentenced in May to 35 years in prison for sexually abusing the minor depicted in the images, an 11-year-old non-verbal boy with Autism. Digital communications between Campbell and Toms revealed that Campbell made specific requests about how to sexually abuse the minor. Further, court documents detail that Campbell and Toms met up in person at an area Kroger, where they exchanged used children’s underwear. Campbell possessed 165 files of child sexual abuse material, including that of infant, prepubescent and pubescent minors engaged in sex acts and subjected to bondage.
Campbell pleaded guilty in November 2025 to sexual exploitation of a minor, distribution and receipt of child pornography and possession of child pornography. Dominick S. Gerace II, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio; Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Detroit; Franklin County Sheriff Dallas Baldwin and other members of the Franklin County Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force announced the sentence imposed by U.S. District Court Judge Edmund A. Sargus, Jr. Assistant United States Attorney Emily Czerniejewski is representing the United States in this case.
This case is part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by U.S. Attorney’s Offices and the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims.# # #