Former Teaching Assistant Heading to Prison
Source: (Photo: sakhorn38/Getty Images)
*Warning: this story has explicit information that may be troubling for some readers.*
NEW ALBANY, Ind. – A now-29-year-old Minnesota man previously involved in a teaching program is facing more than 36 years behind bars for sex crimes against children.
While Shawn Riedesel was part of a “teacher preparation program” in Louisville, Kentucky, he apparently acquired sexually explicit content, and even had sex with a 15-year-old Indiana girl.
According to the Department of Justice, at least three girls sent him explicit materials starting in December of 2021.
While he was in the program at Bellarmine University, which was organized through a partnership with Teach Kentucky, a witness found some of his communications with the 15-year-old on a school computer.
The two had apparently met multiple times to have sex, including at an Indiana hotel, the girl’s home, a church, and Riedesel’s dorm room. He was arrested at her home in July of 2022.
In his dorm room, officers say they found explicit photos of children in the shape of a heart on his wall.
The man’s electronic devices and home ultimately produced thousands of photos and videos, some of which featured Riedesel and his Indiana victim. She later told police that he had forced her to watch pornographic videos of kids, including some that detailed the abuse of infants.
He even told another teenaged girl – from whom he had been receiving sexual content – that he was “doing these things to turn you into my sex slave.”
After prison, the man will also be subject to another 25 years of supervised release, and he must pay restitution and register as a sex offender.
