An Ohio children's hospital nurse who admitted to possessing child porn depicting more than 700 underage victims was sentenced to nearly two decades in prison.
A judge ordered Ryan Ramos, 38, of Columbus, Ohio, to more than 17 years in custody, federal prosecutors announced this week, according to WBNS-TV.
Earlier this year, the former Nationwide Children's Hospital nurse who treated child burn victims, pleaded guilty to one count of distributing and receiving child pornography and one count of possessing child pornography.
He faced up to 20 years in prison.
Ramos downloaded and exchanged more than 42,000 images and approximately 8,500 videos of sexually explicit material involving children, prosecutors said, according to the station. More than 700 victims were identified.
A 2020 investigation that began in New York led FBI agents to uncover Ramos' involvement in a Signal messaging app group dedicated to the exchange of child porn.
There, he shared hundreds of photos and videos involving young boys and infants being sexually abused, prosecutors said.
Detectives recovered more than 346,000 Signal, Telegram and other online chat messages, where Ramos sent, sought, received or discussed child porn.
In 2018, he paid a sex offender $500 for child porn.
