HAMILTON COUNTY, Ohio — A judge has told a Cleves man that possessing child sexual abuse material is not a victimless crime, as he sentenced him to 10 to 11 years in prison.
Robert Shepard, 51, was sentenced in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court on May 12 after pleading guilty to nine counts of pandering sexually oriented material involving a minor.
Investigators said they found roughly 3,000 images and videos on Shepard’s devices. Prosecutors said the files showed real children being sexually abused, including infants and very young victims.
The investigation began after a technology company flagged an upload linked to Shepard’s phone number and made a report to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
That report was passed to Ohio’s Internet Crimes Against Children task force, which is based in Cleveland. Investigators later traced the material to Shepard’s residence in Cleves, and he was arrested in November 2025.
Court documents said one of the videos initially connected to Shepard showed the sexual assault of a newborn infant.
Prosecutors also said some of the children seen in the videos were crying.
Assistant Prosecutor Elyse Deters told the court that every image and video represented a real child being abused. She said victims are harmed again each time the material is downloaded, saved or viewed.
Investigators said searches found on Shepard’s phones showed he had been looking for extremely young victims and violent abuse material. Prosecutors said the search terms included words linked to babies, rape, incest-style abuse and bestiality.
Deters said Shepard was not simply stumbling across the material, but actively looking for the youngest victims, then watching and saving the files.
Judge Christian A. Jenkins told Shepard the case was “the furthest thing” from a victimless crime, saying the demand for such material helps fuel the abuse behind it.
Hamilton County Sheriff’s Detective Doug Todd, the lead investigator, said children whose abuse is recorded often suffer lifelong trauma.
Shepard told the court he was ashamed and said he did not want to view that kind of material again.
The judge sentenced him to 10 to 11 years in prison. Ten other counts were dropped as part of the plea, according to local reports.
When Shepard is released, he will be classified as a Tier II sex offender and will have to register his address for 25 years.
