Austin man gets decades in prison for soliciting, distributing explicit images from multiple minors
AUSTIN, Texas - An Austin man will serve the next 30 years in prison for soliciting explicit images from minors and distributing those images on the internet.
36-year-old Philip Taylor Sobash will also serve five years of supervised release after serving his prison sentence.
The sentence comes after he pled guilty in Oct. 2025 to one charge of sexual exploitation of a minor, while admitting to sexually exploiting six other minors. He was also facing one count of coercing a minor to engage in prostitution or unlawful sexual activity, and one count of receipt of child pornography.
What they're saying:
"Philip Sobash enticed seven minors to produce and send him child sexual abuse material, and then distributed five of those minors’ sexually explicit images online," said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. "The defendant took advantage of teenage girls. His depravity caused them long-lasting psychological trauma. The Department will pursue cases just like this to protect children from sexual exploitation."
The backstory:
The charge against Sobash stemmed from an online sexually explicit relationship with a Tennessee girl that happened between October 2018 and May 2019.
The online relationship began after the two connected on a "sugar daddy" dating site. She had told the site she was 18 when she signed up, but the website did not verify her age. After their communications moved to texts, the girl told Sobash she was 17 and sent him a photo of her driver's license.
Sobash asked her to make and send him sexually explicit images and gave her thousands in cash and gifts. Over that more-than-seven-month period, he received hundreds of photos and videos from her, most of which the US Attorney's office says constituted child sexual abuse material (CSAM).
Despite assuring the girl that the images she sent him would remain private, he posted them online, which the US Attorney's office says led to other people contacting her and attempting to blackmail her into producing more CSAM.
The FBI discovered in 2024 that her images were for sale on a public website and labeled with her first and last name. Those images were part of a larger collection of sexually explicit images and videos of about 70 young women and girls, called the "DiscreetGent" collection.
Court filings said at least four other minor victims' images were found in that collection. Those filings also said that he sent electronic payments to the victims with sexual comments attached, and his Apple iCloud account contained copies of the first victim's images.
Sobash used various monikers online, including "DiscreetGent," "Discreet Gentleman," "Discreet Spoiling," "Sugar Daddy," "Interesting Fun," "Honest and Fun," and "Excited Guy," according to the FBI.
Sobash also admitted to sexually exploiting six others, aged 16 and 17, between 2017 and 2020. Those minors also sent him explicit images and some of those images were also posted online by Sobash.
The FBI said that Sobash reportedly primarily targeted girls between the ages of 15 and 25 from January 2014 through his arrest in December 2024.
The Source: Information in this report comes from the FBI and the US Attorney's office.