In Missouri, a father turned in his own 17-year-old son to police after finding naked pictures of 2-year-olds the teen hoped to sell to pedophiles.
Paul Spensberger took away his son Andrew’s phone away for disciplinary reasons and discovered the photos, taken at close range, of the sleeping naked 2-year-old who is a relative of Andrew’s girlfriend, according to the Daily Mail.
Spensberger told the Daily Mail he was “disgusted” by the images and thought by turning Andrew into authorities they could scare his son–who is often in trouble for theft due to his behavioral problems–straight.
After questioning the teen, Spensberger realized Andrew planned on selling the pictures for $350 to a classmate he suspected to be a pedophile because he desperately needed money to payback people he owed.
While his father originally planned on just scaring the teen, his son is currently being held in O’Fallon County Jail on a $10,000 bail, his father refuses to pay, and facing four years in prison for attempting to distribute child pornography.
‘He feels like s***. He feels remorse and he is scared, he’s facing time in prison. I could go and get him but he needs to learn,’ said Spensberger in a phone interview with the Daily Mail.
The main factor that aided his decision to turn in his son was that the phone was registered under another son’s name who could have been implicated instead. Spensberger is still conflicted between hiring a lawyer to help his son or watching him do up to 7 years in prison.
No court date has been set yet for the teen.