Ohio daycare worker admits raping children, taking videos to share with boyfriend

A former Ohio daycare worker has pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting young children and capturing the assaults on video.

Heather Koon, 27, admitted she sexually assaulted four children — one of whom was just two years old — while she was employed at ABC Kidz Childcare in Elyria, about 50 kilometres west of Cleveland, between August 2012 and March 2013.

The Morning Journal reported Koon took the kids into an employee bathroom where she assaulted them while recording the videos with her cellphone.

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She was also accused of taking obscene images of other children at that daycare and another, the Country Day School in nearby Amherst, where she was employed after leaving her previous job at ABC Kidz, according to the Lorain County Chronicle-Telegram.

The Chronicle-Telegram reported she did so “at the behest of her fiancé” — a convicted sex offender named James Osborne, who also pleaded guilty in the case.

The couple entered their guilty pleas last Wednesday, but news of the case gained widespread attention in the past couple of days.

CNN reported police arrested Koon in October 2013 after authorities “went to check on a registered sex offender and found an unregistered laptop” which contained videos of the assaults.

Koon’s defence lawyer, Dan Wightman, told the Chronicle-Telegram he hoped the judge takes into consideration his client “felt compelled to be involved in this activity.”

“It’s very unusual to have a female charged as a sexual predator — almost unheard of,” Wightman told the Washington Post in a separate interview. “Psychologists tend to think she’s more along the lines of a battered woman.

He also said Koon is actually a “charming young lady” once you get to know her. “Really, her personality doesn’t fit any of the things she’s charged with.”

Kreig Brushnahan, who represented Osborne, also said his client is “sincerely regretful for what he has done.”

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Parents of the young victims aren’t convinced and want Koon and Osborn to pay for their crimes.

“I never realized creatures like this exist,” the father of a two-year-old victim told the Chronicle-Telegram on June 30. “Hopefully they get nothing less than life.”

That is a possibility, according to the Chronicle-Telegram.

“Many of the charges against the couple carry prison sentences of 15 years to life in prison, but that could be increased to life without parole if Lorain County Common Pleas Judge James Miraldi determines they are sexually violent predators at a future hearing,” the Chronicle-Telegram reported.

Koon pleaded guilty to several charges, including four counts each of rape, kidnapping and pandering obscenity involving.

Osborne, who is already serving an eight-year prison term for violating his probation related to another case involving a minor, pleaded guilty to four counts of complicity to rape, complicity to kidnapping and pandering obscenity involving a minor, among other charges.