What in the eff?!
We’ve seen some disturbing reality TV star scandals in our day, but this is truly among the worst and most shocking.
Lori Wickelhaus, one of the teen moms featured on 16 & Pregnant who DIDN’T move on to the more popular spinoff Teen Mom, has just been sentenced to six and a half years in prison on child pornography charges! WHAT??
Wickelhaus, who is now 29 years old, was arrested last year and charged with 20 counts of possession of media showing a minor in a sexual performance.
Last summer, investigators got a tip, thanks to the Kentucky State Police Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, that an “unknown subject uploaded images that depict child pornography to a dropbox account.” After getting a warrant, the cops searched her phone and laptop and easily found the child porn stash.
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The former reality star initially pleaded not guilty, but in May of this year she finally changed her plea to guilty. The plea deal reportedly includes mental health counseling in addition to the substantial prison time. Fans of 16 & Pregnant will remember Lori from Season 2 of the classic MTV reality show. 17 years old and pregnant with her ex-boyfriend’s baby, the Kentucky native fought with her parents over giving up her child for adoption. Ultimately she chose to let a couple adopt little Aidan, who was born in 2009.
Just a few years later she had a couple more children with her then-fiancé Joey Amos, a girl named Rylynn Jo (born on October 22, 2013) and a boy named Logan (born on October 3, 2014).
It’s unclear what the child pornography Lori had in her possession was, but to imagine a mother with children of her own who are six and seven years old having that… it’s just unthinkable.
This is yet another horrible “where are they now?” story for 16 & Pregnant. The show — and its effect on its subjects — was the center of controversy back in 2016 when fellow alum Valerie Fairman died of a drug overdose. This was after the one-time reality star had been arrested numerous times for prostitution.
At the time her adoptive mother blamed the show for what became of Valerie, saying:
“She thought she could pretty much do whatever she liked after the show. She was determined to get everything she wanted. I wish she had never been on TV. It played a big part in her death. I think it messed her up big time.”
It’s tough to figure how anyone could blame a reality show about parenting for Lori’s crimes. What do YOU think of this 16 & Pregnant horror story?
[Image via Campbell County Jail/YouTube.]
The post <i>16 & Pregnant</i> Star Lori Wickelhaus Sentenced To Years In Prison For Child Pornography appeared first on Perez Hilton.