Woman turns in boyfriend after finding 80+ child porn files on his phone

COVINGTON, Ky. (WXIX) - A woman using her boyfriend’s phone ended up putting him behind bars on charges of child porn.

Franklin Hendricks pleaded guilty last week after detectives found more than 80 illicit videos depicting child pornography on his phone, according to court records.

He got caught when his girlfriend started looking through his phone in May 2022 because she suspected him of cheating on her, according to Kenton County Commonwealth’s Attorney Rob Sanders.

“Fortunately for us, she was snooping through his phone and did the right thing once she found evidence he was looking at these contraband images,” Sanders said. “She turned him in, called the police and turned his phone over.”

Hendricks admitted to his girlfriend that he watched the porn and said he had a child porn addiction, according to court records.

“Mr. Hendricks was using the dark web,” Sanders said. “He was very sophisticated about the way he was obtaining his child pornography.”

The prosecutor says Hendricks would not have been on officers’ radar because of how he was downloading it, using a browser that makes it “virtually impossible for police to detect” someone downloading child porn.

“However, if you get the phone that has the actual browser on it, it will still have the evidence, and that’s what happened in this case,” Sanders explained.

Hendricks was also sharing the child porn with others through a file sharing application on his phone.

“Anyone who’s looking at these images of children being sexually abused is bound to perpetrate sooner or later,” Sanders said. “There’s only so much child pornography one pedophile can consume before they start acting on those urges.

Hendricks faces up to 20 years in prison If convicted on all charges.

He will be back in court on March 24.

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