Gay dads sentenced to 100 years each for sexually abusing adopted sons

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A gay U.S. couple will spend the rest of their lives behind bars after being sentenced for raping their two adopted sons.

Husbands William, 34, and Zachary Zulock, 36, pleaded guilty to a host of charges involving the biological brothers, now aged 10 and 12, and were issued a 100-year sentence with no eligibility for parole until that time has expired.

“These two Defendants truly created a house of horrors and put their extremely dark desires above everything and everyone else,” Walton County, Ga., District Attorney Randy McGinley said in a statement that offered details into the shocking case that began in 2022.

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Warning: This article contains explicit details regarding the sexual assault of minors.

Boys were sexually abused since 2019

After receiving a “Cyber Tip” from the U.S. National Center for Missing and Exploited Children about “suspected homemade child sexual abuse material (CSAM),” the Georgia Bureau of Investigation notified local sheriff’s officers.

Police used the IP address from the Google account upload to locate the physical address where the occupant, Hunter Lawless, admitted he’d downloaded child pornography photos and video and identified the sender as Zachary Zulock.

As reported by WSB-TV Atlanta, Lawless told deputies that Zulock was making the material with at least one child who lived in his home.

With a new search warrant, police visited the Zulock residence and detained both men for questioning, during which “they both admitted to sexually abusing both boys over a period of time.”

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The kids, eight and 10 at the time, had been adopted through a Christian special-needs agency, per the New York Post.

Police recovered seven terabytes of surveillance video from inside the home, finding “multiple incidents” of the men abusing the kids in various parts of the house. Cell phones contained more videos, along with images and “graphic text and social media” posts about the crimes.

Court records obtained by Townhall indicated the attacks began in late 2019 and intensified in January 2021 and beyond.

Cell phone information also led police to Luis Vizcarro-Sanchez, 25, to whom Zachary had sent messages about the abuse. He later pleaded guilty to pandering for a person under 18 and multiple unrelated counts of computer theft and was sentenced to 60 years, with only 15 in prison and the rest on probation if he testified against the Zulocks.

Per the court documents, 27-year-old Lawless told investigators that Zachary, whom he met through an acquaintance on the gay dating app Grindr, had sent him “numerous” messages about the assaults.

Lawless denied having been in physical contact with either of the boys, but said Zachary invited him to join in the activities on more than one occasion.

In court, he pleaded guilty to sexual exploitation of children and was handed a 20-year sentence, with only the first 12 spent incarcerated on the promise of testifying against the Zulocks.

‘Such action will never be taken lightly’

McGinley said the married men’s punishment “all but guarantees that the victims will not have to worry as they grow older about their abusers being free.”

“The sentence imposed not only appropriately punishes these Defendants for their repeated selfish actions but also sends the message to the public that such actions will never be taken lightly,” he wrote.

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The Zulocks had originally pleaded not guilty to the charges against them. But both changed their pleas in recent months.

Zachary was convicted on two counts of aggravated sodomy, three counts of aggravated child molestation, two counts of incest, two counts of sodomy, three counts of sexual exploitation of children, and two counts of pandering for a person under 18.

William, who was the first to change his plea, was found guilty of six counts of aggravated sodomy, three counts of aggravated child molestation, two counts of incest, and two counts of sexual exploitation of children.

In his statement, McGinley said he was inspired by the boys’ strength to see things through over the last two years.

“However, the 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.”

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