A former “American Ninja Warrior” champion was sentenced to greater than 10 years in jail for baby exploitation after participating in a years-long sexual relationship with a teenage lady.
Andrew Drechsel, 35, should moreover serve 15 years of supervised launch and pay the sufferer $100,000 in restitution, Chief US District Decide Renée M. Bumb dominated in New Jersey on Wednesday.
Drechsel — who received $1 million on the hit competitors present and competed in eight seasons — pleaded responsible on June 1 to receiving baby pornography and knowingly attractive and coercing a minor to journey interstate to have interaction in intercourse, the US Legal professional’s Workplace in New Jersey introduced.
The sufferer, a New Jersey resident who got here ahead in 2019, claimed they met and exchanged telephone numbers at a parkour occasion in 2014 that was attended by a number of “American Ninja Warrior” contestants when she was simply 14 years outdated, a prison grievance states.
Dreschel was 26 on the time.
For her fifteenth birthday in 2015, Drechsel invited the lady to his fitness center in his then-hometown of Hamden, Connecticut, the place the 2 had intercourse after his girlfriend left the institution, the sufferer instructed police.
Over the following two years, they remained in contact. The sufferer instructed authorities she and Drechsel had intercourse a number of occasions round New Jersey when she was between the ages of 15 of 17.
On Nov. 8, 2019, police searched certainly one of Drechsel’s telephones and located photos of kid sexual abuse — together with images and movies of the sufferer.
Dreschel, who was most lately dwelling in Florida, received season 11 of “American Ninja Warrior.” After his arrest, NBC introduced it will lower all ties with the athlete.
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