PHOENIX — An Arizona man known for being featured in a popular Youtube series was sentenced for child sex crimes in Maricopa County Tuesday.
On Tuesday, the biological son of ‘Youtube Mom’, Ryan Hackney, was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison.
People across the county have followed the case after police say Machelle Hobson forced her seven fostered, then adopted, children to perform in lucrative online videos while she starved, beat, and pepper sprayed them behind locked doors.
In a 2021 investigation, ABC15 exposed how DCS and police repeatedly failed to listen to cries for help and rescue the children from the home, despite more than a dozen prior reports of abuse and neglect.
Years later, the brothers, Logan and Ryan Hackney were charged with multiple counts of child sex crimes allegedly committed in Mesa.
According to a plea agreement, Hackney entered a plea of guilty for sexual abuse and attempted sexual conduct with a minor.
Hackney must register as a sex offender in connection to the guilty plea.
Machelle Hobson died before ever going to trial. The Maricopa mother dubbed "YouTube mom" was facing 29 child abuse charges involving seven of her adopted children, who investigators say she forced to perform in lucrative online videos.
Hackney’s brother, Logan, was sentenced earlier this year to four and a half years in prison for sex crimes.
