JOHNSON COUNTY, KY MAN HIT WITH 1,717 CHILD SEX CHARGES TOTAL IN GRAND JURY INDICTMENT

A Johnson County, Kentucky man who has remained in jail after being served a warrant in September 2024 that included hundreds of sex crime charges but only one count of first-degree rape, was indicted by a Johnson County grand jury on Friday, November 15 on hundreds more charges, including 571 counts of incest with a victim of less than 18 years of age, a Class B felony.

The indictment officially charges John Silas Ashley, 36, of KY. 2381, of Van Lear, KY., with those charges in addition to 101 counts of first-degree rape, 571 counts of first-degree unlawful transaction with a minor (illegal sex acts with victims under the age of 16). All three of these charges are Class B felonies, punishable by 10 to 20 years in prison and a fine of no more than $10,000.

Further charges that were included 400 counts of second-degree rape, and third-degree sodomy, both class C felonies punishable by five to 10 years in prison and a fine of no more than $10,000, 70 counts of third-degree rape, tampering with physical evidence, (both class D felonies carrying a penalty of one to five years in prison and a fine of no more than $10,000) and third-degree criminal abuse, a misdemeanor.

According to the indictment, the incest was committed against all three minor relatives, on 571 separate occasions, with the 101 first-degree rape charges perpetrated against two of the children who were of less than 12 years of age, on separate occasions.

The indictment states the abuse was carried out between March 2020 and September 2024.

In all, John Ashley was charged with 1,717 counts in the indictment case, of which 1,713 were child sex abuse and child rape charges.

The minor also advised she had recorded video evidence of the assault but that John Ashley had found the video and “made her delete it,” the citation said. Cress began conducting a search warrant at the residence and, after advising the alleged victims’ mother of the allegations, the mother advised John Ashley to give her the phone, and she said that John Ashley had told her to hide the phone in “her boss’s car.” The victims’ mother said she could get the phone back, and the phone was located shortly thereafter, the citation said, but had been factory reset.

Speaking with the mother’s boss, the arrest citation said, the vehicle’s owner did not perform the factory reset and that he wasn’t aware the phone was in his vehicle, according to the citation, until the victims’ mother called and asked to get the phone back. The victims’ mother said she did not perform the factory reset and didn’t know about any of this, and thought that the alleged minor victim had “lost her phone due to getting in trouble with her boyfriend.”

The mother further advised that John Ashley was the one who had performed the factory reset and that when she was given the phone, the screen was black and she assumed it was turned off, according to the citation.

According to the indictment, the charge of tampering with physical evidence relates to the resetting of the cell phone, which the indictment states John Ashley “believed was about to be used in the official proceeding” and that he did so “with the intent to impair its availability in the official proceeding.”

After the original visit to the residence, Kentucky State Police Post 9-Pikeville Trooper Dylan Mullins stated in a citation that he was dispatched to the same area of Van Lear as a juvenile was reported to be seen walking down the road and found evidence that John Ashley had assaulted the juvenile by smacking the child several times in the back of the head.

John Ashley was arrested and charged with tampering with physical evidence and fourth-degree assault (minor injury) before being lodged in the Big Sandy Regional Detention Center in Paintsville, where he currently remains.