A former Kentucky teacher's aide has admitted to having sex with “numerous” teenage boys while working at an elementary school, authorities said.
Ellen Phillips, 38, pleaded guilty Friday in federal court in Lexington to attempting to solicit a minor to engage in sexual activity online. This was announced by the Eastern District of Kentucky Attorney's Office..
According to the plea agreement, her victims were boys between the ages of 14 and 16 in Boyle and Garrard counties, and she sometimes had sex with multiple boys at the same time.
She could be sentenced to up to life in prison.
As part of the plea agreement, Phillips, who previously went by the name Ellen Shell, specifically accused a 15-year-old boy of trying to persuade a 15-year-old boy to sneak out of his house to meet for sex on December 22, 2022. admitted it.
Prosecutors said she messaged the victim on Facebook and repeatedly tried to kick him out of the house. When the boy told her he couldn't get out of here, she offered him booze and oral sex if he could sneak out.
Phillips, who lives in Danville, even excused himself so he could tell his mother why he had to leave the house, prosecutors said. In the end, he didn't meet his homeroom assistant that night.
She communicated with other victims through Snapchat, Facebook and text messages and would meet them for sex.
One of the victims' mothers, who requested anonymity, said: told FOX 56. She went to high school with Phillips and their children grew up together.
“These boys didn't know the laws that would protect them and didn't want to come forward because they thought they would get into trouble,” said the heartbroken mother.
She added that her son “brought her alcohol three or four times. I can't wrap my head around the scope of what she did.”
In April 2023, two minors came forward and stated that they had raped her on three separate occasions between July 6, 2022 and August 15, 2022, when they were both 16 years old. was arrested.
Phillips was originally charged in state court and currently faces multiple charges of third-degree sodomy and third-degree rape in Boyle, Garrard and Rockcastle counties. According to the Lexington Herald-Leader.
Chief U.S. District Judge Danny C. Reeves had scheduled her federal sentencing on April 26. She faces a minimum sentence of 10 years in prison and a maximum of life in prison.
State prosecutors will consider dropping the charges following Phillips' federal guilty plea.
