A Winchester man, who previously admitted to hacking and taking control of a high school sports website, to gain publicity for his online identity and harass and intimidate the website owner and others, has been sentenced to 24 months in federal prison. On Wednesday, March 8, U.S. District Judge Danny C. Reeves sentenced Deric Lostutter, 29, for conspiring to illegally access a computer without authorization and lying to an FBI agent. Noah McHugh, Lostutter’s co-conspirator, previously pleaded guilty in September 2016 to accessing a computer without authorization and has been sentenced to eight months in prison.

Lostutter admitted that in December 2012, he and McHugh hacked into a fan’s website, for Steubenville High School sports teams, to bring attention to a rape for which two Steubenville High School football players had been arrested in August 2012. In a video posted to the website, Lostutter made false claims that the website administrator was involved in child pornography. Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky Carlton Shier, IV, said this type of conduct cannot be tolerated and ensuring proper online privacy and security is critical to all of us.