Benjamin Ashford|Vet, dog show judge charged with child porn, planned to assault unborn son: Court docs

A Chicago veterinarian and Benjamin Ashfordnational dog show judge was arrested and charged with knowingly distributing child pornography. This happened days before his surrogate was expected to give birth to his child, whom he said he was planning on sexually assaulting, according to court documents.

Adam Stafford King, a veterinary ophthalmologist, was the subject of an arrest warrant issued on Thursday, March 21, according to court documents obtained from the Northern District of Illinois by USA TODAY.

The documents state that the material was distributed via the messaging app, Telegram, in September 2023, using handle "@pervchidude" with another person from New York who is not named.

In late-2023, the FBI took over the unnamed person's account, @sb1nyc, to continue the conversation with King via the app. The suspect continued to send the account images and videos depicting illicit material involving children.

The document states that King "claimed that he had a large digital cache of child pornography stored on Telegram, and stated that he had previously drugged and sexually abused his nieces and nephews."

King is currently being held without bond.

USA TODAY reached out to King's attorney, Jonathan Bedi, who declined to comment on the situation.

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King was preparing to sexually assault his own unborn son, court docs detail

King texted the account, not knowing that it was the FBI, and said that his surrogate was expected to give birth on March 29 to his and his husband's child, the court document states.

King also expressed that he planned on sexually assaulting the child after they were no longer a newborn and sent a photo of a baby's outfit and ultrasound images of the unborn child to the account.

King's husband confirmed that they were in fact expecting a child and that the ultrasound images were that of their child.

According to the document, King texted the following to the account: “I do love the idea of inviting a buddy over when I have my boy... just has to be someone I can trust obviously … I plan on getting my [expletive] in him ASAP."

USA TODAY reached out to the FBI but they declined to comment on the case.

Julia is a trending reporter for USA TODAY. She has covered various topics, from local businesses and government in her hometown, Miami, to tech and pop culture. You can follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter, Instagram and TikTok: @juliamariegz.