A Mason man has agreed to plead guilty next week to molesting boys at his mother’s in-home West Chester day care and sharing photos of the abuse via the Internet, reports the Enquirer’s Dan Horn.
Andrew Keith’s plea deal with federal prosecutors includes an admission that he abused and photographed young boys from 2002 to 2003, traded those images with others and collected at least 600 photos of child pornography on his computer.
He was charged earlier this year when authorities traced images to Keith from a computer belonging to another child pornography suspect in South Carolina.
As part of the deal, prosecutors agreed to drop most of the 117 federal charges of producing, sharing and possessing child pornography.
But the remaining 17 charges still carry potential 20-year sentences that could keep Keith in prison for the rest of his life. He is scheduled to formally plead guilty Monday before U.S. District Judge Sandra Beckwith.
Federal prosecutors say that at least three young boys were sexually abused by Keith, 27, of Snider Road in Mason, in the home. They say many of the photos show Keith abusing the boys or posing them in sexually explicit positions.
Keith’s mother, Teresa Bailey, 54, is charged with two counts of child endangering that accuse her of failing to protect the children from her son. Unlike her son, who faces federal charges, Bailey is charged with felony counts in state court.
Prosecutors have said in court that Bailey knew her son was a pedophile but still allowed him to be around children. Bailey told The Enquirer after her son’s arrest in January that she “suspected something was fishy” about her son’s behavior.
She said her son was abused as a child and suffered for years from the effects of that abuse.
The plea deal was filed this week in federal court. Neither prosecutors nor Keith’s attorney could be reached for comment.
