‘Horrible’ pedophile grooms teens and infects sex partners with HIV: police officers

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John Dushan Cole was once known as Johnny Peters.

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After years in prison for a string of sex crimes, the 55-year-old Michigan man changed his name and went back into business, allegedly stalking teenagers.

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According to police, Cole was convicted in 2013 for intentionally infecting his young victims with HIV. And now it looked like a repeat.

“Predators are always looking for some connection,” Genesee County Sheriff Christopher Swanson told reporters.

“It’s her grooming tactic. So they use that to get there where they perform their sexual acts and take the innocence of those people and when they do, in many cases they can infect them with a fatal disease.”

Accordingly ClickonDetroit.comCole was reportedly targeting a 15-year-old boy whose family he had befriended so he could set the teenager up for sex.

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According to police, the perpetrator was convicted in 2008 as Johnny Peters of fourth-degree sex crimes. Eight years later he was sent to prison for speaking out and publishing.

More spooky events were to follow.

Swanson said the former director of the Genesee County Health Department called police in 2013, when he was the county’s deputy sheriff, to report a significant increase in the number of young men testing positive for HIV.

“They were able to trace the information back to Johnny Peters, who knowingly infected sexual partners — adult partners — with HIV without informing them,” Swanson said.

He was charged with sexual penetration with an uninformed partner and sentenced to seven years in prison.

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Upon leaving prison in December 2022, he immediately changed his name from Johnny Peters to John Dushan Cole. At a community event, he met a family with a 15-year-old son.

In February, Cole’s pal allowed him to take the teenager to a basketball game.

“The first sexual encounter occurs on the way to the game,” Swanson said, adding that Cole “began aggressively sexually assaulting the boy.”

According to officials, the couple went to the basketball game after the sexual assault. Other sexual assaults are said to have taken place at a bowling alley and elsewhere.

“He’s one of the most hideous[predators]I’ve ever seen because he’s been doing this for almost four decades,” Swanson said. “His grooming tactics were some of the best I’ve seen, in the worst way.”

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Police discovered the alleged depravity in April when a concerned family member took the teenager to a meeting with investigators.

Additionally, investigators said Cole used a podcast to help determine his targets.

In one segment, Cole talked about not letting another kid get cold and ignored how it was.

Forensic evidence from Cole’s phone revealed that there were at least two people — investigators aren’t sure if they were adults or children — who had sex with Cole and weren’t informed of his HIV status.

“We’re not just talking about criminal sexual behavior towards young people, we’re talking about someone who in turn intentionally infected them with HIV,” Swanson said.

He remains in prison and is charged with knowingly having sexual intercourse with the intention of infecting an uninformed partner with HIV, committing first, second, third and fourth degree criminal sexual conduct, immorally molesting a child and sexually molesting children to have misrepresented.

Police believe further charges against Cole are likely.

bhunter@postmedia.com

@HunterTOSun