A man who headed up Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s nuclear energy programs was arrested in October after federal investigators say he sought sexual videos, photos and messages from “many” underage girls.Throughout the summer, federal court records say, Andrew Worrall, 56, asked girls to send sexual images and videos via social media. Sometimes he received them, federal investigators said.Agents with the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of the Inspector General arrested Worrall, a Farragut resident, in Octob...
A man who headed up Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s nuclear energy programs was arrested in October after federal investigators say he sought sexual videos, photos and messages from “many” underage girls.
Throughout the summer, federal court records say, Andrew Worrall, 56, asked girls to send sexual images and videos via social media. Sometimes he received them, federal investigators said.
Agents with the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of the Inspector General arrested Worrall, a Farragut resident, in October. He faces charges including sex trafficking of a child, enticement and coercion and exploitation of a child for the purpose of producing child pornography.
Worrall is no longer an ORNL employee, according to an ORNL spokesperson. Knox News asked the spokesperson when Worrall left the lab, and whether he was terminated, but did not receive a reply.
Worrall worked as the director of ORNL’s nuclear energy programs starting in 2024, according to his LinkedIn profile, and had joined the lab a dozen years earlier as a senior reactor design and analysis engineer.
Knox News reached out to Worrall through his attorney, Nathaniel Ogle, who declined to comment on the allegations.
Investigators say they found evidence of sexually explicit conversations with teenage girls. One of the people Worrall contacted tipped off investigators using an ORNL employee concerns email address.
They said Worrall presented a 17-year-old from Charleston with a detailed script to create a sexually explicit video and paid her $20 for a different explicit video, according to court records filed this month.
Filings say Worrall also discussed traveling to Michigan to sleep with an 18-year-old woman he believed was 16 years old. The woman at first told Worrall that she was 18, investigators said. She later said she was younger.
“You really don’t care that I’m 16?” she wrote Worrall, according to investigators.
“I love that you are,” he replied, also according to the court filing.
They kept talking, investigators said, and Worrall and the woman discussed plans to spend a night together in a hotel room he would rent.
His conversations with the 18-year-old helped prompt the investigation into his actions. The woman sent screenshots of her conversation with Worrall to Worrall’s ex-wife. Both women contacted the lab.
Worrall’s ex-wife told investigators she was alarmed by his behavior, investigators said. Police said she told them Worrall had another inappropriate relationship.
Mariah Franklin reports on technology and energy for Knox News. Email: [email protected]. Signal: mariahfranklin.01