NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WZTV) — A federal court sentenced a Texas doctor to 30 years in prison for exploiting a 17-year-old Middle Tennessee girl he met on a sugar daddy dating website, one of seven minors he paid or pressured into producing child sexual abuse material between 2017 and 2020.
Texas physician Phillip Taylor Sobash, 36, used a sugar daddy dating website to meet teenage girls online. He then used cash and gifts totaling thousands of dollars to pressure or entice them into producing and sending him sexually explicit images and videos of themselves.
One victim, identified as Minor Victim 1, was a resident of Middle Tennessee. She and Sobash connected on the sugar daddy dating site, moved to text messaging, and she told him her age and sent him a photo of her driver’s license confirming she was 17.
Despite knowing her age, Sobash continued the relationship and received hundreds of sexually explicit photos and videos from her. He provided her thousands of dollars in cash and gifts to entice her to do so.
This exchange occurred over more than seven months from October 2018 to May 2019.
Along with sexually exploiting Minor Victim 1, Sobash admitted to sexually exploiting six other minors, ages 16 and 17, between 2017 and 2020.
At Sobash’s direction, Minor Victims 2 through 7 also sent sexually explicit photos and videos. Sobash ultimately distributed the minors’ images online, where they were sold under the minors’ real names.
Phillip Sobash enticed seven minors to produce and send him child sexual abuse material, and then distributed five of those minors’ sexually explicit images online,” said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “The defendant took advantage of teenage girls. His depravity caused them long-lasting psychological trauma. The Department will pursue cases just like this to protect children from sexual exploitation.
Sobash was sentenced to 30 years in prison followed by five years of supervised release for sexually exploiting minors.