The Cranberry Eagle
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 Article published November 26, 2012

Adams man pleads guilty, gets 14-18 years in prison

Kim Paskorz
Butler Eagle

An Adams Township man on Tuesday acknowledged fabricating identities on the social networking website Facebook to convince teenaged girls to send him naked photographs of themselves and meet him for sex.
William Ainsworth, 54, in Butler County Court pleaded guilty to more than 75 charges, including involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and solicitation of unlawful contact with a minor. In exchange for the plea, prosecutors in the state attorney general’s child predator unit agreed to recommend Ainsworth face 14 to 28 years in state prison followed by 16 years of probation when he is sentenced.
County Judge Timothy McCune, who accepted Ainsworth’s plea, saidAinsworth cannot be sentenced until he is evaluated by a member of the state’s sexual offender assessment board.
Court records say Ainsworth, who has a white beard and thinning hair, pretended to be a young surfer from Florida and a rebellious high school drop-out to lure more than 600 teenagers, mainly girls from Butler, Beaver and Allegheny counties, into trusting him and adding him to their Facebook “friends” list in 2011.
Records allege Ainsworth concocted an “elaborate and disturbing” tale of the fictitious identities, intertwining the persona’s lives, using photographs from other places to bolster his claims. At one point, he announced the death of one of the personas.
In reality, Ainsworth was a car salesman and had been a one-time owner of the Six Pack Grille.
Once in the teen’s confidence, Ainsworth’s personalities allegedly would compliment the victims, and discuss their problems at school and at home. In the process, he convinced five of the girls to share naked photographs of themselves with him. Two of the girls were convinced to meet with Ainsworth.
And one girl, according to court records, even was convinced to have sex with Ainsworth in August 2011.
The scheme unfolded a month later when investigators arrested Ainsworth at the home of a 14-year-old girl in Mars he had reportedly solicited for sex.
One of the eight girls identified as victims, all of whom were 13 to 15 years old when victimized, attended the plea hearing Tuesday, but did not speak.
And Ainsworth, who said he is suffering depression, made no comments during the hearing.