Newly-minted social worker faces five years for sex with boy, 13

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Payton Harleigh Shires’ career in the caring professions crashed and burned just months after it began.

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The 24-year-old Ohio woman became obsessed with a 13-year-old boy she was assigned to help and began repeatedly having sex with him weeks after they met.

A slew of raunchy snapshots, videos and texts accompanied her physical abuse.

Now, Shires is potentially looking at five years in a Buckeye State slammer.

Shires pleaded guilty in May to four counts of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor, one count of inducing panic with a firearm, and one count of intimidating a witness or victim.

On Thursday, Franklin County Court of Common Pleas Judge Mark Serrott hammered Shires with a four-year and nine-month sentence in a state prison. She received 253 days credit for pretrial dead time.

According to Law & Crime, Shires will have the possibility of judicial release for good behaviour, a form of parole with mandatory counselling, after 18 months.

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If she is denied early release, the disgraced social worker will remain on supervised release for five years. She will also have to register as a sex offender every 180 days for 25 years after release.

Serrott credited Shires for some “real remorse” but proceeded to lambaste the previously engaged to be married woman for her betrayal of trust.

“He was a child,” the judge told Shires. “He was trying to get the help he needed.”

But the boy’s mother wasn’t quite so forgiving. She said in her victim impact statement that the family’s faith in the system had been shattered due to Shires’ “devastating actions”.

“Instead, he was manipulated, groomed and sexually abused by Ms. Shires,” the statement said. “I regret I ever let you in my house.”

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Shires was arrested on her birthday — a mere four months after getting her social worker license. She was snapped up by a company called the National Youth Advocate Program.

But in late September 2023, the boy’s mother reported Shires to the Columbus Police for confessing to the sexual abuse during a phone call with her as cops listened in.

The shattered mom said she saw the raunchy texts from Shires to her boy. The social worker was curious if his mother “had seen the videos or messages” or if those videos had been deleted. They weren’t.

A forensic investigation of the boy’s cellphone revealed several additional incriminating messages. There was also at least one video of the child and Shires engaging in sexual conduct.

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After she was sprung on $500,000 bond, Shires arrived at the victim’s home with a gun. Her victim’s mother had “ruined her life,” she claimed.

Shires threatened to kill the boy’s mom — and herself.

“I was not thinking rationally at the time that I showed up to the mother’s house,” Shires told the court.

“I was extremely suicidal. I never had intentions to harm anybody but myself. And, I’m just thankful that she took the right steps to call the police. She saved my life that day. And, also, I just feel horrible for the mistakes I made.”

However, Judge Mark Serrott was not in a forgiving mood. During sentencing, he recalled Shires’ pleas for leniency suggesting that it was the boy who tried to coerce her into continuing their sexual relationship.

“You’re the adult,” Serrott said. “You’re trained professionally to avoid situations like this.”

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