Alleged Child Pornographers Targeted Around the World

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There is now a direct link to kiddie porn and the actual murder of children. In this case, the victim is thought to be Somer Thompson.

Not having had much computer time the past few months, I wondered what had happened in the case of the many arrested. I knew someone was commenting about their son and his innocence. Makes me think of CA and all of her babble about daughter CA and no mention of Baby CA. For the life of me I cannot understand the attacks made by this Mother, and refusal to accept that just maybe sonny boy wasn't innocent. And the fact that the lives of the children who were used and abused... and nothing said in support of the children. I think I would probably loose my cool and attempt to beat the living crap out of someone doing this. Many years ago, I knew a four year old who was molested. Her Dad allowed LE to do their job ( I wanted to beat the guy senseless) and the man went to jail. His victim was in her late teens when the man was released.The girl was forever in fear this man would find her... but GOD dealt with him and he dropped dead of heart failure at 42 yrs. of age.

Glad he is dead, I am getting so cynical, one less perv out there.

For three months agents have been tracking known child porn threads from the GBI’s offices in Cleveland. The sweeps began around daybreak Tuesday.

The images are disturbing, Keenan said.

For example, there are some in which infants are being molested and one in which “the images involve the rape of a 4-year-old male child," the director said.

“[In] previous experiences, some of the offenders have children in the home and they have been manufacturing their own child pornography,” Keenan said. “The child pornography that they are pursuing is known child pornography -- certain files or certain images.”

In another case, Keenan said agents entered a house to find that the same child seen in the pornographic images was actually in the home.

Whitaker said data shows Georgia ranks fifth in the number of “devices” used to transmit or receive child pornography. “We are only getting 2 percent of what’s out there,” he said.

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OMG!

TerryRose wrote:OMG!

I am with you. Infants!!!!

I can't even comprehend how anyone could do these despicable things to children. But to infants?

Just what in the hell is going on in this world? OR has it always been this way and we just didn't know it?

Jared Warden had all the signs of sex addiction. Casual sexual relationships became his pattern, and when he developed a significant relationship, Warden cheated on his girlfriends. After years and years of viewing online pornography, his interest began turning to children. When Warden eventually began to fantasize about having sex with children, he knew he needed help.

The local 25-year-old human services manager agreed to discuss his sexual addiction for this article under the pseudonym Jared Warden, with the hope that he would help others faced with the same problem.

Warden, who sought treatment early, believed early intervention made a big difference in his recovery.

“Most people who start like I did end up with some contact offense with a child,” he said. “I am so glad I got help before the fantasy became real. That’s my message. You can turn back before it gets to that point.”

Although some high-profile people have been linked to possible sexual addiction— Tiger Woods, Michael Jackson, Eliot Spitzer—sex addiction is not restricted to celebrities. Carol Conklin, a licensed clinical social worker who specializes in sex addiction—has treated between 12,000 to 14,000 noncelebrities in her 20 years of practice at City Gate Life Recovery Center in Buffalo. Her clients travel from Ohio and Pennsylvania. About 80 percent are male.

“They use sex to cope with stress,” said Conklin. “People addicted to sex have a hard time being alone. They always want company. That’s when they’ll get on the Internet or on the phone sexting. They’ll do whatever it takes to keep that sexual energy going.”

Defining the problem

The National Council on Sexual Addiction and Compulsivity has defined sexual addiction as: “engaging in persistent and escalating patterns of sexual behavior acted out despite increasing negative consequences to self and others.” The Mayo Clinic estimates that sex addiction affects 3 percent to 6 percent of adults in the United States.

People can be mislabeled as sex addicts, noted Lisa Anllo, a licensed clinical psychologist who specializes in sexuality and relationships. Anllo, with an office on Linwood Avenue, recently relocated from Cleveland, where she was in private practice and was assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Case Western Reserve University.

“Part of the problem is defining what is normal healthy sexuality,” Anllo said. “There are problems of infidelity that don’t necessarily represent the presence of an addiction pattern. How extreme is it?”

Not everyone who engages in multiple simultaneous affairs is a sex addict, Conklin agreed. Many teenagers who develop their sexuality with pornography find that relational sex isn’t as satisfying.

Warden, who started his Internet relationship at age 12, recalled having trouble with girls. “For someone in their early 20s, I wasn’t able to be intimate,” he admitted, “because I had this secret life.”

Personality traits

Most human beings lack the narcissism required by sex addicts, maintained Anllo. It’s the narcissist who believes he is entitled to sexually act out, and that he will never get caught.

“People in power may be thought of as having opportunities and a certain narcissistic bubble they are walking in that leads them to think they will get away with it,” said Anllo. “If you listened to John Edwards when he was in the mode of admitting he had failed in his commitment to marriage, he acknowledged that there were problems with misuse of power.”

Research indicated that 85 percent of sex addicts reported sexual or emotional abuse as children. Their parents were rigid and strict, Conklin explained, with little human connection.

“With Tiger Woods, it was all about performing,” she said. “Sex addicts can be very hard to get to know. There can be a high level of adult attention deficit syndrome, where they need a high degree of novelty.”

Combine the quest for novelty with the illusion of anonymity, and it’s easy to see why the Internet is called the crack cocaine of sex addiction.

“The illusion of anonymity allows people to act on desires much more easily,” Anllo said. “I wouldn’t say it’s creating new addicts. People tend to be predisposed for emotional reasons. [The Internet] provides an increased level of access to their drug of choice.”

The Internet factor

“I’m not going to say I never would have been an addict, but I never would have looked at porn when I was 12 years old if we didn’t have a computer,” Warden insisted. “It started with finding my dad’s “Playboy” in the basement. Then I went to the computer. At first it was a couple of hours at a time, then it was all forms of pornography for all lengths of time.”

Visiting online sex sites is seductive, easy and anonymous, said Conklin.

“I’ve had people who spend 20 to 30 hours a week on cyber sex,” she said. “It’s an overwhelmingly powerful pleasure. Sex addicts keep things secret, hidden and compartmentalized.

“Tiger Woods held quite a secret life. Not so with Bill Clinton.”

Today, there is no Internet access at Warden’s home, something he has in common with other young adults who are recovering from sex addiction.

“I’m not by any means the youngest recovering sex addict in Western New York,” Warden said. “There are a lot of other kids who, just like me, got sucked in. If I want to use the Internet, I’ll go to somebody’s house, but quite honestly it’s not that necessary that I would even want the temptation.”

Treatment

Treatment focuses on controlling the addictive behavior and helping the person develop a healthy sexuality. It does not eliminate sex. The 12-step programs, stressing group therapy and other components that parallel Alcoholics Anonymous, are a popular form of treatment.

Just as the descent into addiction was a gradual process for Warden, so is his recovery.

By the time he was 18, the online pop-ups advertising Sex Addicts Anonymous struck home, so he went to his first meeting but did not return for six months, only to leave again.

Warden now participates regularly in a local 12-step program.

“A major part of my recovery was bringing my parents in on it and sort of owning up to what had gone on,” Warden explained. “They didn’t condone my behavior at all, but they supported me. The secret can come out and I’m stronger for it.”

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God bless this man for overcoming this addiction and for coming forward to help others understand the gravity of what they are doing and encouraging them to find help for this. To come forward like he has done is the epitome of bravery. I hope he remains clean of it for the rest of his life.

It is obvious that sexual addiction is a lot more prevalent than many of us ever knew.

Thanks for the article, BJ. It was a very interesting read!

Virgil Kirian Jr. received a 10 year prison term for making available 486 images of child pornography on the internet.

The investigation began in 2008, when an ICAC investigator of the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office identified child pornography being traded on the internet.



Utilizing peer to peer investigative techniques, the ICAC investigator located an IP address with known child pornography. Subpoenaed information returned Kirian’s home address in Marysville.

The investigation was forwarded to the Marysville Police Department, who executed a search warrant at his home.

The Bureau of Criminal Investigation conducted a forensic examination of Kirian’s computer and found 486 videos/photos of child pornography involving children between the ages of 4 and 14.

Additionally, chat logs from his computer showed Kirian portraying himself as a 16-year-old boy on-line in order to contact other teens. One teen had sent Kirian a lock of her hair.

On December 17, 2009, Kirian pleaded guilty to 30 counts of pandering sexually oriented material involving a minor, felonies of the second degree.

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Great news!----one more put away for 10 years! Bravo to law enforcement! :cheers:

by TerryRose Today at 12:17 am Great news!----one more put away for 10 years! Bravo to law enforcement!

Don't forget the TWO from the current, 2009,sting that pleaded guilty (details on the other Operation Cyber Safe thread).

Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason announced that Fred Siver, 42, of Solon, was sentenced Monday to 3 years and 9 months in prison for making child pornography available on the Internet.

Siver was also classified a Tier II Sexual Offender, so upon release from prison, he must verify his residence and place of employment every 180 days and cannot live within 1,000 feet of a school for 25 years.

Siver was indicted in July, 2009 for making child pornography available for sharing from his computer at his residence between June, 2008 and November, 2008.

On Jan. 15, 2009, members of the Ohio ICAC Task Force, including officers from the Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Office, executed a search warrant at Siver's residence.

A forensic examination of Siver's computers revealed additional child pornographic videos and photographs saved to the computers' hard drives.

On Feb. 8, 2010, Siver pleaded guilty to nine counts of pandering sexually-oriented matter involving a minor; five counts of illegal use of a minor in nudity oriented material or performance; and one count of possessing criminal tools, all felonies.

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GUILTY love that word.

CritterFan1 wrote:GUILTY love that word.

Ditto.

Some of the 90,000 child pornography images a Valparaiso University graduate student is accused of owning depict children 5 and younger, including a baby who looks to be about 4 months old, according to a criminal complaint.

The complaint filed in the U.S. District Court in Hammond details how the FBI first started investigating Michael Wilson, 26, in October 2007 when a conviction of an Illinois man for child pornography turned up Wilson's online name.


Michael Wilson, 26

The man, who wasn't named in the complaint, had an account with the Web site Hello.com, which allows users to share files with other users. The man told police it was likely he had traded images of child pornography with anyone listed as his friend on Hello.com.

That list included the screen name Wilson49332, which police traced back to an account owned by Wilson, who also has worked at a Merrillville business helping autistic children and as a substitute teacher at three local school districts.

The username is also the same for his Hotmail e-mail address and the name associated with his LinkedIn profile.

An FBI agent in Cleveland saw that name pop up on Hello.com in July and saw that it was sharing about 8,000 images. The agent downloaded about 100 pictures and videos, 65 of which depicted children in sexual encounters.

FBI agents in offices in Chicago and Maryland conducted three more downloads from the username Wilson49322 during last fall and February, each time downloading images that turned out to be child pornography. The number of images he was sharing continued to increase, too, going from 13,000 to 100,000 on Feb. 16.

The complaint wasn't clear if all 100,000 images were of child pornography. A news release from the U.S. Attorney's office said he had 90,000 images of child pornography.

One of the addresses associated with Wilson49332 during these downloads was in North Carolina, at a residence FBI officials say they believe is where one of his relatives lives, and two others were in Valparaiso, including his apartment at 241 Marcliffe Drive, according to the complaint.

In the complaint, investigators described 13 pictures they downloaded, all of which were of prepubescent children, half of which were of children who appeared to be 5, including one of the baby.

Ties to schools

According to the complaint, Wilson works at Accessabilities Inc. in Merrillville, where he works with autistic and other developmentally disabled children. He has also worked as a substitute teacher at Lake Central School Corp., Portage Township Schools and Duneland School Corp.

E. Ric Frataccia, assistant superintendent for curriculum and learning at Portage, said Wilson had worked as a substitute teacher at the district as recently as last week, but he had been removed from the list of substitutes as of Tuesday.

Frataccia said, though, he had not heard any complaints about Wilson while he taught and that a criminal check on Wilson had been clean.

"But criminal checks don't check on current behavior," he said. "They check on whether you were indicted before."

Larry Veracco, assistant superintendent at Lake Central, also said a criminal check on Wilson was clean. He said Wilson taught at Lake Central High School for two days in September.

Mary Hatton, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's office in Hammond, would not say whether Wilson had any prior arrests or convictions on his record.

"We have no comment, period," she said.

According to his LinkedIn profile and a Web site listing his resume, Wilson was born and raised in Michigan before moving to Louisville to attend the University of Kentucky, where he received a bachelor of arts in psychology.

He also received a master's of school social work from the University of Louisville, a master's of education in special education from Michigan State University and started at Valparaiso University last fall for an educational specialist in school psychology. He also has worked as a social worker and substitute teacher at other places as early as 2006, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Wilson says on his resume Web site he first became interested in working with children because of his brother, who has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

"So many kids just need some TLC and some adult support, and I feel as though I have been given a gift to give these kids what they need," he writes on his site.

Wilson, who had his first court appearance Monday when he told the judge that he had smoked marijuana the day before, has a probable cause hearing scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Thursday.

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What a waste he is!----Imagine the education and profession of this man and his succumbing to this criminal behavior!----Lots of smarts, zero morality! How many parents trusted this perv with their children? Put him away for a long, long time!

Bravo! once again to our law enforcement.......... :clapping:

Re: my last post about Michael Wilson, 26,
Found this on the internet. So is it the accused or his brother that was looking up the porn? I'm not going to post his email, but there is lots on the web with the person's email address which wasn't hard to figure out. I haven't seen anything BAD.....

Saturday, January 20, 2007
On Messaging me (aim, email)
Sorry guys, my mom put some new program on this computer that logs all my visited sites soo I cant use myspace at home, only at school (and there I have to use a proxy) as well as at friends. I can use aim so hit me up thourman or my email w*****************.
Its gay I know, but I have to share this computer with my bro, and the program is for him because she found out he got on some porn site and was pissed!! So yeah, I still use myspace- keep the pic comments coming and hit me up on aim or email!

Or was that message his "defense" if he needed one down the line?
How easy it is to be paranoid.......the more I see, the worse it gets.

Michael's Myspace:
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A number of biker club members arrested in a federal roundup last week are being released after signing $20,000 bond documents.

Bond hearings were held throughout the day Monday in U.S. District Court for members of the Chattanooga Outlaws Club facing charges ranging from conspiracy to sell cocaine to unlawful transport of firearms to possession of child pornography.

The bikers who were released immediately after appearances before Federal Magistrate Court Judge Bill Carter face stringent restrictions on their activities until the scheduled trials late this spring. Prohibitions against out-of-state travel were eased for defendants who live in North Georgia so that they will be able to go to and from their homes.

Trial has been set for April 27 for four men accused of four counts of conspiring to sell and/or distributing cocaine. They include:
Gary "Doodah" Raines, 58; Marion County; Hershell Raines, 26, Marion County; Roger "Buddha" Roof, 46, Chattanooga; and James "Smiley" Westbrook, 44, Rossville, Ga.

Ten more defendants – facing a complicated array of gun, drug and other charges – are scheduled to go on trial a week later, on May 3. They include: Marcus Smith, 41, Chattanooga; Ryan "Lil R" Birt, 44, Chattanooga; Kelly Adams, 32, Chattanooga; James "Dozer" Miller, 40, Chattanooga; Jeramy "Cracker" Rittenhouse, 36, Chattanooga; Robert "BB" Boone, 49, Chattanooga; David Woodward, 40, Cleveland, Tn.; Ronald "Snake" Howard, 58, Benton, Tn.; Charles "Robbie" Kinsey, 41, Ringgold, Ga; and Steven "Steve-O" Tucker, 38, Rossville, Ga.

One of those defendants, Ryan Birt, is charged with two child pornography counts as well as one count of unlawful transport.

Legal action also is pending against other defendants. For example, James "JP" Parker, 45, of Whitwell, has been charged with six counts of intent to sell cocaine, three counts of unlawful transport of firearms and three counts of violent crime involving drugs and a machine gun.

Prosecutors have said that charges against the defendants grew out of a 30-month investigation into drug trafficking in Hamilton and Bradley Counties and other parts of Southeast Tennessee.

During the probe, investigators were able to infiltrate both the Chattanooga branch of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club – headquartered at 3014 Campbell St. in East Chattanooga – and its affiliate, located at 1350 Strawberry Lane in Cleveland.

Lorin Coppock, ATF special agent, said the probe began after a Dalton, Ga., man with a “known affiliation” to the Renegades motorcycle club was the victim of a car bomb on Aug. 16, 2007.

It was noted that the victim, 27-year-old James Wayne Brock Jr., had taken part in a shootout with a rival motorcycle gang, the Outlaws, in the parking lot of a Clayton County, Ga., strip club.

Agt. Coppock said an informant got inside the club and it was learned that members were buying and selling cocaine.

He said Miller was buying cocaine from Smith. He said agents were watching when Smith and his girlfriend, Ms. Adams, showed up with an ounce of powder cocaine and two ounces of crack cocaine. Smith was given marked money for the drugs.

The agent said Smith and Ms. Adams were arrested later, and Ms. Adams had 23 grams of cocaine on her.

He said the couple had a seven-year-old boy and, on one occasion, Smith remarked during a drug deal that "he had to hurry back because he had a kid in the car."

The agent said Smith and Ms. Adams lived in various locations, including a hotel at one time. They were arrested last week at an apartment.

Ms. Adams asked to also be placed on bond, though the government initially opposed it. It was agreed that the probation office will carry out an investigation to see if arrangements can be made for Ms. Adams to have a residence and treatment.

Her attorney, Rich Heinsman, said she went to a Nashville prep school and had a fairly clean record except for the recent arrest. Her seven-year-old son is now with her sister. The attorney said Ms. Adams also has a child who lives with his father in North Carolina.

Ms. Adams works as a teacher's aide at Hillcrest Elementary School, where her son attends, it was stated.

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Thanks for keeping up with these stories, BJ.

Happy to be doing it TerryRose!



A man described as a "volunteer youth spiritual leader" at Grace Independent Baptist Church in Ocean Springs was charged late Tuesday night with four counts of possession of child pornography, Jackson County Sheriff Mike Byrd said.

Stephen Brown, 37, was arrested at his home at 1317 Glacier Ave. in Ocean Springs, Byrd said.
According to Byrd, Browns Internet surveillance and arrest was called "Operation Mocking Bird" and involved Sheriff's investigators as well as detectives with the Ocean Springs Police Department and the state Attorney Generals Internet Crimes Against Children Unit.
"And there might be other charges, maybe involving kids," Byrd said.
County Youth Court Judge Sharon Sigalas set bail for Brown at $1 million -- $250,000 -- for each count on Wednesday. County Judge Larry Wilson was out of town.
At Browns home, detectives seized a laptop, computer hard drive, DVDs, thumb drives and other electronic items, Byrd said.
"The affidavit states that on Feb. 2 you transmitted and downloaded video of an actual child under the age of 18 years old engaging in sexually explicit conduct," Sigalas read in court.
Brown remained in the Jackson County Adult Detention Center Wednesday afternoon.
Attorney General Jim Hood recently began the Internet Crimes Against Children unit as part of his cybercrime division.
This was Jackson Countys first cyber arrest to involve the division that provides technical assistance to state, local and federal law enforcement officials in the investigation of electronic crimes as well as the seizure and forensic analysis of computers and other digital evidence, Byrd said.
"What this does is help us fight these folks and have people come forward and report these types of crimes," Byrd said. "Its really gives us an edge and it will be good for everyone especially children."
Grace Baptist Academy is adjacent to the church, but Pastor Paul Perkins said Brown was not associated with the school.
"He is not a paid employee of the church," Perkins said.
He declined to answer further questions.
The church's Web site hasa Steve Brown listed as a bus captain who drives youth members from Moss Point and Pascagoula.
The church's Feb. 14 bulletin posted on the Web site also lists Steve Brown as a security provider during church services.
If convicted, Brown faces up to 20 years for each count.
Byrd asked anyone with information about Brown to call the Jackson County Sheriff's Department at 228-769-3063.

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After a two-month investigation, police arrested an online minister Monday for possession of child pornography.


Eric Spandorf,
Internet Minister
Tampa police say that during a search of his home at 1302 E Columbus Drive in January, Eric Spandorf, 43, admitted to officers that he downloaded child pornography from the Internet to sell. The search came after his roommate and fellow online minister, Robert Paul Primavera, 54, sold a DVD containing child pornography to an undercover officer, police said.

Officers arrested Primavera on Jan. 22, charging him with 58 counts of possessing child pornography. He remains in a Hillsborough County jail with bail set at $60,000.

Spandorf is charged with 66 counts of possessing child pornography and two counts of intent to distribute child pornography. He remains in jail with bail set at $525,000.

In his online profile on the Tampa-based Biblical Ministries' Web site, Spandorf labels himself as an associate pastor and youth crisis pastor. A bio on the Web site says Spandorf grew up in New York and moved to Orlando when he was 24, eventually settling in the Tampa area.

"He turned to the church out of feeling despair and disappointment in life and he now is a teen counselor," Spandorf's bio said.

Police say Primavera also told them he was a minister for biblical ministries, but the Web site contains no information on him.


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Another "minister".

BJ, so much for posting these very important stories. I know Terry Rose thanked you but really..you go above and beyond the call of duty.

It is important to realize that a perv can be anyone. Young, old, rich, poor. It doesn't matter.

I cannot imagine being only 26 years old and my life being spent in jail for downloading and/or manufacturing porn. It's truly Sick!

More children are in danger than ever before. And more people interested in child pornography are being caught than anyone ever knew existed.

If it seems like reports of child porn are growing, it's because they are. In Florida, a federal task force dedicated to rooting out child exploitation from Jacksonville to Orlando brought more cases last year than any other district in the country. And the only person linked to the slaying of 7-year-old Somer Thompson is in jail on unrelated charges of possessing child porn, producing it himself and abusing a young girl.

The Internet and cheap technology have made creating and sharing the illegal images easier than ever, fostering what authorities fear is a growing audience.

Research has consistently shown a strong connection between viewing child porn and sexually abusing children. But in the so-far unsolved case of Somer, who went missing on the Orange Park street where the person of interest was living, experts caution against drawing too many conclusions about what having child porn means a person is capable of.

"These are two awful crimes, child porn and the murder of a child, and they may be associated in people's minds," said David Finkelhor, executive director of the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire. "But the truth is that we don't really have any evidence that they're any more connected to each other than any other two sets of crimes."

So far, the Clay County Sheriff's Office has kept quiet about what evidence might link Jarred Harrell, 24, to the girl who was killed in October. Her cause of death has not been made public, and Harrell has not been charged in her death.

Harrell was staying on Gano Avenue when Somer went missing there on her way home from school, and when the team of investigators looking for her killer learned his former roommates had reported to authorities the child porn found on his computer, his possible involvement hit their radar.

Research over the decades has established a profile for people who are perversely attracted to children. Often they've been raised in non-traditional environments or experienced a childhood trauma, Finkelhor said.

As a result, they often didn't have productive relationships with their peers. Court records have shown that Harrell was raised in a bizarre environment with several different stepfathers, including one who publicly declared that he had married Harrell's then-8-year-old sister.

Another stepfather has said he found pornographic images of children in a locked box in Harrell's room when he was 16. The girls in the picture were under 6 years old - about the same age as the girls investigators found pictured on Harrell's computer.

And though the specific evidence in the Somer Thompson case may remain secret for some time, those in the field of sex offender enforcement and treatment agree that viewing child porn itself has no proven link to violent offenses like child kidnapping, murder and other physical harm.

That's "exceptionally rare," said Elizabeth Letourneau, associate professor in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Medical University of South Carolina.

Murder is nearly impossible to predict in these cases because they're so random, the researcher said. Harrell would certainly be a person of interest to her, given all the circumstances known to police thus far, but crimes like Somer's slaying cannot be foreseen.

"The problem is, thousands of people access child porn every day," she said, "and some of them never even commit contact offenses - 99.99 percent of them will never kill a child."

When Jacksonville attorney Jay Howell was deeply entrenched in the fight against child porn, the trail was familiar. When you found a video, you'd check out the few major suppliers in Amsterdam to try to find and help the victim.

Now the parameters of that search include anywhere camera phones and digital cameras are sold.

"One thing we never knew in the early days is how many pedophiles were out there," said Howell, a founder 25 years ago of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. "With the Internet, we learned there are a whole lot more out there than any of us imagined."

Though generally linking the viewing of the illicit images to child homicide is decidedly a stretch, research is consistent that the compulsion to watch is strongly linked to the compulsion to act out.

"All the experts and professionals in the area have concluded this is not just 'someone looking at pictures,' " Howell said.

Nationally, the federal government prosecuted about 100 cases per year nationwide in the early 1990s. Investigations have ramped up steadily since, and more than 2,200 suspects were taken to federal court in 2008, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

There were 86 cases of child exploitation- and pornography-related charges prosecuted in the Middle District of Florida last year, up from 50 cases five years before. Although some cases - including Harrell's - are tried by the state attorney, a recent change in federal law allows the U.S. Attorney's Office to go after virtually any child porn-related offense and impose a mandatory minimum sentence of between five and 15 years.

Karen Gable, a federal prosecutor in Orlando, said that doesn't necessarily mean there's more of it happening here; just that the resources dedicated to catching and punishing offenders are vast. But she acknowledges the field has grown substantially since she began prosecuting sex crimes a decade ago.

Gable, regional coordinator for the nationwide movement known as Project Safe Childhood, attributes this in part not only to the ease of using the Internet but the support system it provides to people who used to often think they were alone in their feelings.

"Society has a very strong more against abusing children," Gable said. "But now they can find each other and start validating what they're doing. I think people talking to each other - file-sharing images they no longer even have to buy - has really contributed to the increase."

She says she's seen a mixed bag of offenders, some with criminal records of contact offenses against children and others without. But she stresses that child sexual abuse is the most under-reported crime, and there's no way to know for sure how many child porn consumers are acting on their urges.

Even if they never do, the damage has been done, Gable said.

Not only do these offenders view crime scene photos of children being abused, they're creating a demand for more and more abuse to be recorded and put out on the Web forever.

"They always fear someone will recognize them," Gable said. "It's a whole other level of victimization."

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"....offenders view crime scene photos of children being abused....."

That sentence says it all. God speed law enforcement to rescue these children.

Ten-year-old Jon Venables had recently tortured James Bulger to death when this mugshot was taken.

March, 2010
Jon Venables and fellow killer Robert Thompson have been living under new identities since their release from prison in 2001.

In 1993 Thompson and Venables, both aged 10, kidnapped, tortured and killed two-year-old James Bulger on Merseyside in a case that made headlines around the world.

While many details of Venables' arrest last week remain suppressed, reports say he has been working as a nightclub security guard for a number of years.

The Sunday Mirror today reported that his arrest was related to possession of child porn, and that Venables had been abusing drugs and alcohol on a daily basis "for years".

Venables was taken back into custody for breaching "good behavior" conditions.

UK Justice Minister Jack Straw, who refused to provide details on the case last week, confirmed that the allegations Venables faced were serious.

"Our motivation throughout has been solely to ensure that some extremely serious allegations are properly investigated and that justice is done," Mr Straw said.

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*************************************************************************************

They held his little hand like loving older brothers — and then they killed him. The shocking power of that grainy CCTV image of James Bulger being led out of the shopping centre to his death has not diminished over 17 years.

How could it? After all, giving a child your hand, feeling those trusting fingers gripping your larger ones, embodies the care and protection that a larger member of the species owes a smaller one. It’s a symbol of our humanity. For that act to be so brutally perverted is a mighty wrench to the proper order of things.

That is why the image of Jon Venables and Robert Thompson (both aged 10 at the time) has become shorthand for what the Tories call our “broken society”. And it is why the news that Venables was back behind bars last week, having breached the terms of his licence, caused such consternation.

In 1993 the trial of the two boys was divisive. Many felt no sympathy for them (to put it mildly). David James Smith, who sat through every grim day of it for this newspaper and later wrote a book about the case, says: “Every day I thought those two little boys shouldn’t have been tried in a court like grown-ups. The dock was raised so that the boys would be able to see over the bar, but that made them even more of a spectacle. I found those weeks traumatic; God knows what they felt.”

In Britain the age when children are held responsible for their crimes is 10; in almost all other countries it is higher. Youth courts in the UK can hand out a maximum sentence of two years, so children accused of more serious crimes are usually tried in an adult court. Many find that inappropriate. But, given the hysteria surrounding this case, it was important justice was seen to be done. The “lock-’em-up-and-throw-away-the-key” majority needed a proper trial — indeed, according to a YouGov poll last week, 67% of the population think they should never have been released.

After the boys’ conviction, opinions divided once more when the trial judge recommended they serve eight years, while Michael Howard, then the home secretary, wanted 20. Eventually the European Court of Human Rights upheld the eight. The fights continued over their rehabilitation, after the authorities decided they should have “institutionalised parenting”, frequent therapy, trips out, computers and even birthday presents.

“It’s a paradox,” says James Smith, “but at the end of the trial I thought they had a better chance of a decent life than they would have done if they’d been left on the streets of Liverpool.”

He has a point. Venables and Thompson came from what we now think of as underclass backgrounds. Venables’s mother was depressed and violent; he had two siblings with special needs and an absent father. Before he killed James Bulger, Venables had exhibited disturbed behaviour at school; in one incident he had started throttling a boy in his class — so hard that it took two teachers to separate them. Thompson and Venables regularly bunked off, mooching around and nicking things.

Thompson, who had been described as “psychopathic”, was always seen as the harder nut. Venables, by contrast, was soon being held up as a role model to other young offenders. Early in his incarceration he would cry frequently and suffer from nightmares in which James appeared to be in his room. But evidence at the trial showed clearly that it was Venables who suggested to Thompson, “Let’s get a kid lost”, and Venables who told the adults who had tried to intervene that James was their “little brother”. The boys meandered around with the toddler for two hours before battering him to death on a railway line.

Last week the bogeyman came out of the shadows. Far from being safely rehabilitated into “normal” life, Venables was back in prison. What had he done? Well, that is a mystery. To protect the boys from being lynched, the courts had imposed a Mary Bell order, a draconian reporting restriction that guarantees the murderers anonymity for life. It is because of this order that we are allowed to know only that Venables (who now has another name) is in breach of the terms of his parole. Is that right?

Look at it this way: Venables was granted anonymity to give him a chance of redemption. As a society we humanely gave both him and Thompson the tools they needed to learn to have a different kind of life, to put the horrific killing behind them. It was a gamble, certainly. But it has worked for other child killers.

Mary Bell killed two children — aged three and four — when she was still a child. Gitta Sereny, her biographer, says that in Bell’s case rehabilitation worked: she was filled with remorse and went on to make relationships and have a child and grandchild. “She made quite a good life — she was quite normal after a while,” Sereny says. Such a turnaround was possible for James Bulger’s killers; indeed Thompson, against the odds, has apparently turned into a stable young man.

However, Venables is a different case. By breaching the terms of his licence and ending up back in prison, he has violated our trust. The anonymity order was there to protect him while he remained on the straight and narrow — and now that he is back in prison, we have the right to know what he has done.

The tabloid newspapers are full of rumours: Venables, they claim, beat someone up at work, snorted coke, took ecstasy and chatted up girls in Liverpool clubs (he is banned from Merseyside). We don’t know whether this is true. However, I have it from a reliable source that he has not been put back behind bars for a triviality, but for a number of serious violations. His punishment has been severe: his fellow prisoners are said to know who he is, so he is being kept isolated for his own safety. One day, when he emerges, he is likely to need another new identity (cost: £250,000) and will lose any friends he once had.

I’m all for compassion but if it transpires that Venables has committed other serious crimes, it is right that we should all be protected from him. As a child he committed a terrible murder. As a civilised society we have given him the chance to reform. It looks as though it hasn’t worked out: maybe he was too damaged by his childhood to recover; maybe the stress of leading a double life, of always hiding who he really was, became too much of a burden. Or perhaps he was always a bad ’un. Some people are.

We gave him a chance. But if he’s responsible for any more crime, I’m afraid he doesn’t deserve our generosity.

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He looks so innocent in his mug shot. One would never think by looking at just the pic of James that not only did he murder a two year old but later, he would be one of many that are into child porn.

How does this happen?? This is what I want to know. How does a child murder? How does a child grow up to be addicted to child porn??

So if the inmates can't get the real thing ( photos) they draw their own? That is true desperation!

A federal grand jury has indicted a 61-year-old Indiana man on a charge of producing and distributing obscene visual representations of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct, the U.S. Attorney office announced.

While he was an inmate at the Elkton Federal Correctional Institution in Columbiana County, William J. Platz drew and distributed to another inmate several of the obscene depictions of minors between August 2007 and April 2008, the indictment says.

If convicted of this charge, Platz faces five to 20 years in prison and up to a $250,000 fine, plus five years to life on parole. The case was investigated by the FBI’s Youngstown office.

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Trial Begins for Mega Sex Offender Slapped with 54 Counts of Rape and Kidnapping

Trial is scheduled to begin Monday for tier III sexual offender John Szorady, who has been charged with 54 counts of rape and kidnapping.

Szorady, 46-years-old, was indicted on charges of rape, sexual battery, pandering sexually-oriented matter involving a minor, intimidation of a crime victim, and possessing criminal tools.

Szorady began raping his stepdaughter in 2004 when she was 13-years-old. The rapes continued until February 2009, when the victim filed a report with the Cleveland Police Department.

Szorady videotaped himself raping the victim with a hidden camera, and then threatened to send the video to her friends, relatives, and classmates if she refused to submit to him further.

In 1990, Szorady pleaded guilty to attempted rape after he sexually assaulted his then 11-year-old stepdaughter. He was released from prison in 2004.

A former music minister at a North Carolina parish faces from 15 to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty to a federal child pornography charge.

Paul Lawrence Berrell, 29, who formerly worked at St Eugene's Catholic Church, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Asheville to one count of production of child pornography, according to a statement by U.S. Attorney Edward Ryan.

"Berrell coerced a minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing a visual depiction of the conduct," on or about April 23, 2009, according to court documents.

Berrell also faces a $250,000 fine and the potential for a life term of supervised release.

Berrell was charged with nine counts of second-degree sexual exploitation of a minor after police searched his residence.

Then a grand jury indicted the suspect on two counts of indecent liberties and one count of statutory sex offense.

The acts involved a 13-year-old girl and took place on Aug. 15 and April 21, according to the indictments.

The former pastor of St. Eugene Catholic Church in Asheville, NC, FrJohn Schneider, was later charged with obstruction of justice after police said he deleted hundreds of images of child pornography from Berrell's computer.

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Disgusting.

A 25-year-old former jail guard accused of sexual conduct with boys is due in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court.


Prosecutors say Ronald Corrao Jr. sexually assaulted a boy, asked boys to take sexual photographs of themselves with his cell phone and gave marijuana to them when he worked at the Independence jail from June of 2006 through December of 2008.
Corrao, of Independence, is charged with pandering sexually-oriented material involving a minor, illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material, sexual battery, unlawful sexual conduct with a minor, corrupting another with marijuana, disseminating matter harmful to juveniles and possessing criminal tools.
Police searched his house Jan. 31 and seized his computer and cell phone. They found photos and videos of child pornography, prosecutor's spokesman Ryan Miday said.
Corrao was to appear in court today for a pre-trial hearing, but it was rescheduled for March 25.

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2 plead guilty in Cuyahoga county today for seeking and downloading child porn on their home computers.

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by TerryRose Yesterday at 9:14 pm 2 plead guilty in Cuyahoga county today for seeking and downloading child porn on their home computers.

There's a thread dedicated to the pleas and sentencing of the 35 Porn Kings and 1 Porn Queen. So far 6 have pleaded guilty and some of those have been sentenced. Check it out.

SIX have pleaded guilty in the recent (2009) internet child porn case in Cleveland Ohio/ Cuyahoga County/ DETAILS ON FIRST COMMENT

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Thanks, BJ, I didn't see that before and thought this was the only thread for this topic. I have selected to watch the other topic so I will locate it next time.

Thanks for the positive update!

Cleveland man pleads guilty to child porn
Posted: April 1, 2010, 5:51 PM CDT

A Cleveland man pleaded guilty to federal child pornography violations Thursday, according to U.S. Attorney John M. Bales.
Jordan Scott Wheeler, 22, was charged with possession of child pornography and was immediately remanded into custody to await sentencing, according to Bales' office.
The pornography was discovered after Wheeler defaulted on a loan from a pawn shop and the store's employee found images of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct on the laptop computer that Wheeler had pawned.
Police determined there were at least 611 images of child pornography on the computer and were issued a warrant for Wheeler's residence where they obtained another laptop computer with more than 1,000 images of child pornography, according to Bales' office. Some of the images depicted children under the age of 12 involved in sexually explicit conduct.
Wheeler could get up to 10 years in federal prison, but his sentencing date has not been set.

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The game begins with a teenage girl on a subway platform. She notices you are looking at her and asks, "Can I help you with something?"
That is when you, the player, can choose your method of assault.
With the click of your mouse, you can grope her and lift her skirt. Then you can follow her aboard the train, assaulting her sister and her mother.
As you continue to play, "friends" join in and in a series of graphic, interactive scenes, you can corner the women, rape them again and again.
The game allows you to even impregnate a girl and urge her to have an abortion. The reason behind your assault, explains the game, is that the teenage girl has accused you of molesting her on the train. The motive is revenge.
When does a video game go too far?
It is little wonder that the game, titled RapeLay, sparked international outrage from women's groups. Taina Bien-Aime helped yank the game off store shelves worldwide.
"This was a game that had absolutely no place on the market," said Taina Bien-Aime of women's rights organization Equality Now which has campaigned for the game to be taken off the shelves.
But the controversy that led to stopping sales of the game instead took it viral.
That was how Lucy Kibble and Jim Gardner in Britain heard about it.
"I think the idea that you can do it by wholesale banning is just never going to work anyway because we downloaded it for free off the Internet," Gardner said.
In the case of RapeLay, he was right. It is still readily available on dozens of Web sites, sometimes for free.
What happened to RapeLay is an example, said Bien-Aime, of why Japan needs to police game makers.
"It's obviously very difficult to curtail activity on the Internet. But the governments do have a role in trying to regulate this sort of extreme pornography of children, both in their countries, and through the Internet ," she said, adding that they were calling for the Japanese government "to ban all games that promote and simulate sexual violence, sexual torture, stalking and rape against women and girls. And there are plenty of games like that. "
Those games are known as "hentai games." Almost all feature girlish-looking characters. Some of the games are violent -- depicting rape, torture and bondage in detail.
Step into a game shop in Akihabara, Japan's electronics district, and hentai games are readily available. In minutes, we found a game similar to RapeLay. The object here is also revenge: Find and rape the woman who fired the player from his imaginary job. Along the way, the player can rape a number of other girls and women.
Hentai games are not new to Japan. This country has long produced products the rest of the world would call pornographic. But before the arrival of the Internet, such items stayed in Japan. Now, once a game goes on sale in Tokyo, it is digitized and shared everywhere.
Japan does have censorship laws for sexual content. In games and videos, genitalia are obscured, even if it is animated. But Japan's laws do not restrict the themes and ideas of the games.
A national law that would make possession of real and virtual images of child porn illegal is under discussion, but no serious legislation has moved forward in Japan's parliament.
CNN contacted the Gender Equality Promotion Division in the Gender Equality Bureau of Japan's Cabinet Office, which is charged with handling the hentai gaming issue.
Despite repeated calls over a period of weeks, no representative from the government office would comment to CNN on camera. The office refused to make a statement on paper. A spokeswoman would only say over the telephone that the Japanese government was aware that the games were a problem and it was checking to see if self-policing by the gaming industry was enough.
A member of the Institute of Contents Culture, who did not want to give CNN his name, said restricting game themes limits freedom of expression.
"In my opinion, RapeLay's storyline went too far. However, if a game creator wants to express something and create content out of it, a government or public entity shouldn't have the power to restrain it."
Lucy Kibble and Jim Gardner, the gamers in Britain, said trying to control games on the Internet was futile and that content control was up to parents.
"The idea of banning it, or telling people what they can and can't do just because on the off chance some kid might get involved with it is just ridiculous," said Gardner.



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This is just sick!

A Lansdale woman convicted in February of indecent assault on a minor eight years ago has been arrested and charged with engaging in intercourse with a 14-year-old boy.

Erica Dillon, 31, of the 800 block of Walnut Street, was awaiting sentencing on charges of indecent assault and child endangerment in the first case when she had sex with the boy April 5 in the bedroom of her home, police said.

Her live-in boyfriend, Antonio Morano, 28, allegedly watched. The boy had come to the house to visit Morano, his former neighbor. Police said Morano showed the boy a pornographic video on a computer.

The second sexual encounter came to light April 15 when the boy's mother went to Dillon's home to confront her about the incident.

Lansdale police responded to a report of a disturbance and began investigating. According to an affidavit of probable cause, officers learned that Dillon had been convicted in February for the 2002 indecent assault on a 5-year-old family member and was out on $50,000 bail.

Since a repeat offense violated the terms of her plea, authorities Friday moved for an increase in bail. They also filed a second set of charges, including indecent assault, corruption of a minor and related offenses in the April 5 incident.

"This is really unusual," said Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman. "Sometimes we see sex offenders do their time, and repeat the offense. But it's unusual only a few weeks after conviction to have the offender doing it again."

At an arraignment Saturday, Dillon was ordered held at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility on $250,000 cash bail.

Law enforcement officials also arrested Morano on Friday and charged him with showing obscene material to a minor and corruption of a minor. He was ordered held at the Montgomery County prison after failing to post $10,000 cash bail.

Because of her conviction, Dillon is entered on Megan's List, a registry of sexual offenders in Pennsylvania.

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Dillon and her live-in boyfriend, 26-year-old Antonio Morano, watched a pornographic video with the 14-year-old inside their residence and then Dillon had sex with the boy in the bedroom of the home while Morano watched, say police.



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Would love to hear from the mother that posted on this thread insisting on her son's innocence. Most of the 36 accused have been sentenced by now. There are just a few that are still waiting for a trial and most of the accused have changed their pleas from Not Guilty to Guilty.

I think she was banned, no?---for bad behavior on VH?

I don't think she's banned. I just looked and she's still on the members list, but she hasn't posted since January. I hope she was right about her son.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer, Oct. 30, 2010:
Ex-Cleveland police officer charged with attempted rape of a 12-year-old girl, held on $250,000 bond

CLEVELAND - A 53-year-old retired Cleveland police was arraigned Friday in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court after being charged with traveling to a North Olmsted motel in July to have sex with what he believed was a 12-year-old girl.


Robert Bonness of Parma, who retired last year after 23 years as a patrolman, was arrested around 3 p.m. Thursday by North Olmsted police and the Ohio Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. He was charged officially with attempted rape and possession of criminal tools.

Judge Judith Kilbane Koch set Bonness' bond at $250,000 -- a figure defense attorney Edward LaRue said he wasn't sure his client could meet. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Nov. 8 at 3 p.m.

Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason, who created the task force in 2000, said authorities started focusing on Bonness on July 11. Mason said Bonness responded to a task force internet ad from a "father and daughter interested in the right individual for the right experience."

Bonness had e-mail conversations with an undercover detective in which he said he desired sex with the undercover detective's 12-year-old fictitious daughter, Mason said. No fee was ever discussed, however, Mason said.

"Those messages were as explicit as can be and very sick." Mason said. "You wouldn't expect something like this from a man with a career like his."

Bonness arranged to meet the father and his daughter Thursday in North Olmsted, authorities said. Bonness asked the father to have the daughter dress "innocently" and wear a cheerleading uniform, they said.

Mason said arresting officers described Bonness -- who is twice divorced and currently dating a 40-year-old Ukrainian woman he met over the Internet -- as both "surprised and not surprised" following his arrest at the motel.

Authorities were also executing a search warrant to seize Bonness' home computer.

Bonness faces up to nine years in prison on the current charges, Mason said.

"I'm certain that after his computer is further analyzed, he'll face further charges," Mason said. "This is a perfect case as to how ICAC should work and we have a 100-percent conviction rate in cases like this."

In 1994, Bonness was indicted for felonious assault for assaulting another police officer's wife, but a Cuyahoga County Grand Jury found him innocent.

"This case should have no bearing other than perhaps affecting the bond," LaRue said.

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Sounds to me like Mason is doing his job.

As far as the mother of the convicted son, I unbanned her and she was already my "friend" on FB. So, I privately FB'd her and told her she was no longer banned from VH. She went on a rant about Mason. I consulted with someone near and dear to me that knows the political ropes in Cleveland and Ohio in general, got back to the mom with parts of what the person in the know told me and now, the mother "pokes" me on FB. I don't poke back or play those games.

IMHO, I think she knows deep down her son is guilty and it is hard to digest. I seriously cannot blame her for that. But, she had attempted to use Mason as her personal whipping post. It was all HIS fault. It didn't fly with me or my "consultant".

Be that as it may, I would love to see her come on here and get real...discuss what she is going through. We would all be very supportive of her. NO parent wants to find that out about their child..no matter how old they are.

She must be very afraid.
However, you are right. We would help her up.

Wrapitup wrote:Sounds to me like Mason is doing his job.

As far as the mother of the convicted son, I unbanned her and she was already my "friend" on FB. So, I privately FB'd her and told her she was no longer banned from VH. She went on a rant about Mason. I consulted with someone near and dear to me that knows the political ropes in Cleveland and Ohio in general, got back to the mom with parts of what the person in the know told me and now, the mother "pokes" me on FB. I don't poke back or play those games.

IMHO, I think she knows deep down her son is guilty and it is hard to digest. I seriously cannot blame her for that. But, she had attempted to use Mason as her personal whipping post. It was all HIS fault. It didn't fly with me or my "consultant".

Be that as it may, I would love to see her come on here and get real...discuss what she is going through. We would all be very supportive of her. NO parent wants to find that out about their child..no matter how old they are.

This thing about Mason: He is referred to as the "800 lb. gorilla" in the media. In the county, there has been a major scandal and prosecutions now of those who were in office until recently. Many who paid some bribes to get contract work have already plead guilty, some have been sentenced and now the bigwigs are going down----the auditor, the heads that control the real estate taxes, grant reductions on properties for the purpose of taxation, and also hire outside contractors for various work. Prior to the FBI raiding their offices and arresting Mr. J. Dimora and Mr. Frank Russo, Mason had been one of a group who championed putting a charter on the ballot in a previous year to eliminate their jobs and substitute a different form of government in order to prevent corruption. I thought Mason brave at the time because he is very powerful in the county's Democratic party, as are the aforementioned Dimora and Russo, as one would think he wouldn't go against political cronies like that. Then the FBI raided and prosecuted and, after this occurred, the local newspaper that always has been Republican in nature and also various other media keep on trying to taint the image of Mason and suggest that somehow he must be involved in something too. To date, nothing has surfaced that would in any way suggest that Mr. Mason had any knowledge of the crimes or that he did anything wrong concerning this whole issue, but some locals keep trying to dirty his name now and then anyway, instead of just leaving it up to the FBI. The man has political enemies, I think, and also I think that tough prosecutors probably make enemies anyway. This is the story and so far Mason nor his office has been implicated in any wrongdoing. By the way, even 2 local judges have been implicated so it doesn't look like anybody has escaped detection by the FBI in this case and it has been quiet lately, there have been no more indicted recently, and the new form of government has eliminated those jobs and others voted in to run the county. Mason has stated that he will not seek another term when it is his time to run again.

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(CBS News) Seventy-two people have been charged--of which 52 were arrested--in an worldwide online child pornography enterprise, the Justice Department said Wednesday.


Attorney General Eric Holder and Homeland Security Department Janet Napolitano announced the unsealing of three indictments and one complaint charging 72 individuals in the online ring.

Holder spoke of Operation Delego, an investigation by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that was launched about two years ago, that resulted in the prosecution.


"This operation targeted hundreds of individuals, in countries around the world," Holder said, "for their alleged participation in 'Dreamboard' - a private, members-only online bulletin board that was created and operated to promote pedophilia, and to encourage the sexual abuse of very young children."


According to Holder, members of Dreamboard would trade graphic images and videos of adults sexually abusing children and create a vast library of images depicting the abuse.


Interested members were required to upload pornographic images of children 12 years and younger, and continued to do so in order to maintain membership. The more images submitted meant greater access to content.


"Some of the children featured in these images and videos were just infants," said Holder. " And, in many cases, the children being victimized were in obvious, and intentional, pain - even 'in distress and crying,' just as the rules for one area of the bulletin board mandated."

In court documents that were filed, the members of Dreamboard used aliases and screen names and were prompted to employ encryption programs in case of a search by law enforcement.


According to the Justice Department, Operation Delego is the largest prosecution of people involved in an online child exploitation enterprise. Thirteen of those charged have pleaded guilty and four people have received prison sentences of 20-30 years.


Efforts continue to identify and catch those defendants who are still at large, according to a Justice Department press release.


"I believe we're also sending a strong message to those who are willing to harm and exploit children, and who attempt to hide their activities from law enforcement," he said. "We will find you. We will stop you. And we will bring you to justice."