COLUMBUS – A former Dublin high school teacher has been sentenced to more than 20 years in prison for taking nude photos of a 15-year-old student he was involved with and encouraging her to send him sexually provocative photos of herself to him.
Gregory Lee, of Columbus, was sentenced Thursday in U.S. District Court to nearly 22 years in prison, 20 years of supervised release and a $10,000 fine for production of child pornography, according to Benjamin Glassman, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio.
According to court documents, the parents of a teenage girl contacted Dublin police in May 2017 after discovering information in the teenager’s personal journal regarding sexual activity with Lee, 53, who had been her teacher at Dublin Scioto High School.
The girl admitted to police that she and Lee engaged in sex acts on numerous occasions in Lee’s classroom and his vehicle beginning when she was 15 years old.
Investigators found about 49 photos depicting the girl in various stages of nudity among more than 200 images of her discovered during a forensic examination of his electronic devices.
The girl confirmed that Lee had taken some of the nude pictures of her that were found on his devices and also instructed her to take nude photographs of herself and exchange them with Lee through her phone.
The forensic examination also revealed nude images of another female that was believed to be a former student of Lee’s who confirmed that she took the photographs with her cell phone when she was 17 years old and sent them to Lee, Glassman said.
The case was investigated by the Dublin and Westerville police and the FBI’s Child Exploitation Task Force.