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Former reality TV star Tony McCollister apparently has a Mount Olympus of sickening perversions.
The 43-year-old Ohio man pleaded guilty on Tuesday to 17 counts of pandering sexually oriented material involving a minor and four counts of sexual conduct with an animal.
Also on board for the sickening activities was his playmate Erica Lynne Grove.
The Ohio sicko starred on A&E’s short-lived Neighbors with Benefits about the swinging lifestyle. It lasted just two episodes.
‘Engaged in … sexual conduct with dogs’
But McCollister is denying the pair drugged and raped a five-year-old girl. He is currently on trial in Warren on those charges. Cops zeroed in on McCollister after child sexual abuse material was linked to his IP address.
According to cops, McCollister and Grove were busted last December throwing a bucket of ice on their twisted hijinks.
In addition, shocked detectives found video evidence of the gruesome twosome “engaged in various types of sexual conduct with two dogs.” Thousands of lurid missives between the pair were also recovered — along with evidence they drugged and raped the young girl.
Grove was convicted of gross sexual imposition and child endangerment. The femme fatale earlier pleaded guilty to having sex with the dogs.
‘Evidence of drugging and raping a little girl’
And prosecutors say McCollister still faces dozens of more charges.
Now, a judge is weighing a verdict on the 13 other counts he’s fighting in court: four counts of rape, one count of corrupting another with drugs, five counts of gross sexual imposition, three counts of endangering children.
“Just when we thought that sex with the dogs was going to be the most horrific part of this case, the detectives discovered evidence of the drugging and raping of a little girl,” Prosecutor David P. Fornshell said in a statement.
“I’m sitting in a room full of people who investigate and prosecute child sexual abuse cases on a daily basis; we’re reviewing the evidence, and it’s just silence. It’s really difficult to even process.”
Later, detectives “uncovered evidence that Grove and McCollister drugged a female child, who was under the age of six, for the specific purpose of raping and engaging in various other types of sexual assault of the child.”
‘A visceral urge to condemn’
The judge in Grove’s case delivered a not guilty verdict on the rape and drugging allegations after her legal eagles argued that the graphic text messages prosecutors showed as evidence of abuse were fantasy.
“These messages ignite a visceral urge to condemn the defendant for the perverse conversations in which she engaged,” Judge Robert Peeler said, “but it’s fundamental that a civilized society must not punish for thoughts alone.”
WCPO 9 reports that McCollister’s lawyers are pursuing a similar courtroom gambit.
“It’s not a crime,” his lawyer asked during a Sept. 29 cross-examination, “even for people to have fantasies that most of us kind of find gross, for the lack of a better word?”
Grove is back in court on Nov. 10, according to Warren County jail records viewed. Both are scheduled to be sentenced in November.
McCollister and Grove are reportedly no longer together.
bhunter@postmedia.com
@HunterTOSun