Content warning: This article describes child sexual abuse. Please take care while reading.
Married Georgia couple William Zulock and Zachary Zulock were arrested two years ago and accused of sexually abusing their two adopted sons. The Zulocks have now been sentenced, and they will spend the rest of their lives in prison.
The Zulock investigation began when the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children notified the Georgia Bureau of Investigation that suspected child sexual abuse material (CSAM) had been uploaded from a Walton County IP address in Georgia where the Zulocks lived, Fox 5 Atlanta reported.
The upload was tracked to William and Zachary, both in their 30s, who admitted abusing the children. Investigators recovered seven terabytes of evidence documenting the crimes, including surveillance and cell phone footage, as well as text and social media messages mentioning the abuse.
Multiple cameras were seized inside the Zulocks’ home, and the Zulocks reportedly pimped the boys out to other men in a pedophile ring in the Atlanta area, and bragged about the abuse via text.
The boys, who were 10 and 12 when the Zulocks were sentenced, had reportedly been adopted years earlier. Multiple reports have said the children were adopted through a Georgia Christian special-needs adoption agency, which has since closed. The agency faced accusations it frequently “cut corners” in the process.
Referring to the case, District Attorney Randy McGinley said, “These two defendants truly created a house of horrors and put their extremely dark desires above everything and everyone else.”
Both men pleaded guilty
William and Zachary pleaded not guilty in August this year to a long list of charges stemming from the abuse. A man who received the CSAM content that led to the couple’s arrest has also been sentenced to 12 years in prison after the man agreed to cooperate with the authorities in the Zulock investigation. Two other men have also been sentenced for their involvement in the case, Atlanta’s 11Alive reported.
“It cannot be stressed enough how important it is for our society to have individuals willing to adopt children in need. But anyone who does so and then abuses those children deserve extremely harsh consequences and decades in prison,” District Attorney McGinley said.
William and Zachary have both been sentenced to 100 years in prison with no chance for parole. “The hard work of law enforcement put an end to the abuse suffered by the victims, and this resolution will help the victims continue their process of healing,” McGinley added.
The gay community response
The Zulocks were prominent in the Georgia LGBTQ+ community. Danny Winters, who identifies as a married gay father in his X post, wrote in part, “As a gay father and husband, it is inconceivable how anyone could hurt a child, especially your own children. The Zulocks have destroyed not only these boys’ lives but the notion that homosexual couples should even be allowed to have children either through adoption or surrogacy.”
Referring to the two young victims, AG McGinley added, ” … [T]he depth of the defendants’ depravity, which is as deep as it gets, is not greater than the resolve of those that fought for justice and the strength of the victims in this case. The resolve I have seen from these two young victims over the last two years is truly inspiring.”
If you know someone suffering from sexual violence, contact RAINN or the National Sexual Abuse Telephone Hotline at 1-800-656-4673.