High School Counselor Charged with Child Pornography Production

Monday, November 17, 2008

Jason Keough, 34, a former high school counselor and youth coordinator of Athabasca, Alberta, is charged with possession of child pornography, creating child pornography, voyeurism, and making voyeuristic material.  Pedophilia is a paraphilia - and most pedophiles do not have just one. Many have several paraphilias, often including exhibitionism and voyeurism. Mr. Keough appears to be no exception to this rule.

He is scheduled to appear in court December 22.

Like Shooting Fish in a Barrel

Sunday, November 16, 2008

The Internet Crimes Against Children task force in Ohio has arrest 41 individuals on child pornography charges. The operation, dubbed Operation Safety Net, used peer-to-peer network software tracking to hunt these predators down.  According to Cleveland.com, it's the same method used to take down Roy Pompa, who was drugging children and raping them.

Pompa had been sexually assulting seven unconscious young girls, taking photos of the rapes, and uploading them to the Internet. He was the "largest disseminator of online child pornography in the nation during the month of November 2006." Unfortunately, those photos can never be taken back, and will circulate in the Internet the entire lifetimes of those girls and well after their deaths.

Of the 41 caught most recently, 29 were adults, 12 were juveniles, 2 were women, and one was a girl. Prosecutor Bill Mason says, "finding sexual predators who target children is like "shooting fish in a barrel" in an age when the Internet allows offenders to commit their crimes anonymously.

"These guys and ladies are out there downloading this stuff and getting to our children," Mason said. "The sad lesson here is that there are thousands of them. When we catch one, there is one right behind him. But it takes so much effort to catch the one."

Your Unsecured Wireless Could be Used to Access Child Pornography

Friday, November 14, 2008

An article by Valerie Kalfrin in the News & Advance (Florida) highlights the danger of leaving your wireless access unsecured.

People looking to steal wireless access for a variety of reasons, including committing crimes like uploading and downloading child pornography, cruise neighborhoods looking for unsecured networks. When they find one, they mark the sidewalk or street in front of the house with  white paint, and sometimes give the location away on the Internet. “There are sites you can go to that literally provide you with maps where you can get on the Internet,” says Paul Henry, a computer forensics specialist in Ocala, FL. If yours is used, you may receive
company you'd never expect. “If the FBI is investigating child pornography, guess whose door they’re going to knock on?”

Stealing wireless access is a crime punishable up to 5 years in prison in Florida.

Wisconsin Father and Son Caught with Toddler Child Sexual Abuse Images

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Allen and Adrian Clausen, ages 45 and 17, of River Falls, Wisconson were arrested last week on child pornography charges. Allen, the father,  admitted to viewing images of children as young as 3 being sexually abused and his son, Adrian, admitted to downloading images of children as young as 5 being raped. Allen admitted that he becomes aroused when viewing pictures of toddlers being molested according to the Pierce County Herald.

Michigan Principal and School Superintendent Caught with Child Pornography

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Dan Byrne, an elementary school principal and school superintendent in Rogers City, Michigan, has been charged with child pornography possession. According to the local news 9 & 10 News, "Many Rogers City parents say they are shocked, describing Byrne as a clean-cut, family man."

You Gotta Love Louisiana

Monday, November 10, 2008

Louisiana law enforcement swept up 17 child pornography traders last week in just the first phase of operations to put child molesters in jail. The images they seized were "some of the sickest things I've seen," said the head of the state police in the Shreveport Times. Several children were rescued out of the homes of these abusers.

Gov. Bobby Jindal issued a warning to others who are generating and swapping child pornography on the Internet, "If you intend to harm a child, if you intend to molest a child, if you intend to contact a child by the Internet, you'd better stay out of Louisiana."

Conviction on child pornography possession charges in Louisiana triggers a mandatory sentencing law of at least 2 years of hard labor (maximum 10 years hard labor per charge) with no chance of early release through probation or parole. Chemical castration is mandatory on a second offense, and Louisiana has the death penalty for multiple convictions of child molestation.

Now if we could just get California to drop child pornography possession as a misdemeanor off the books...

Disney Worker Receives Over 11 years in Federal Prison on Child Pornography Offenses

Friday, November 7, 2008

Tony Guerra, 21, Florida, who worked at Disney, received 130 months in federal prison for encouraging a grandfather in Australia to rape and film his 6-year-old daughter and 6-month-old granddaughter and distribute the images on the Internet.

According to Australia's The Age, "A raid on 21-year-old Guerra's Florida home unearthed what FBI special agent Nick Savage told the US District Court was the largest collection of pornography involving "infants and babies I've ever seen".More than 5,000 images and videos of child pornography were discovered on a computer and investigators estimated the oldest child on the images was no more than six-years-old. Internet chats involving Guerra and 30 other pedophiles were also obtained in which Guerra said his preferred age of victims were newborns to 12-year-olds.

"He liked to hear children scream and recommended pedophiles go to Disney to look for girls."

Man Sentenced to Life in Jail for Abusing 3-year-old girl

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Coy Dunkle, 33, of Edon, Ohio, has been sentenced to 110 years in jail for subjecting a 3-year-old girl he could easily access to child sexual abuse. The abuse was filmed.

Disney Employee Arrested for Child Pornography

Monday, November 3, 2008

Paul Fazio, 68, of Davenport, Florida, a Disney employee, was arrested along with 13 other men on child pornography charges. Polk County Sheriff's deputies found 42,000 images of children being sexually abused, some as young as 2.

The Internet now allows many pedophiles to meet, encourage each other to commit sex crimes against children, and trade photos of the evidence of these crimes. So it's no surprise that, according to WIS News 10 and deputies, "Some of these men knew each other. In fact, one of the suspects led detectives to three others."

Teachers and School Owner Exploit Vulnerable Children

Friday, October 31, 2008

Christopher French, 28, of Winchester, Massachusetts, has been indicted on charges of child rape, child enticement, posing a child in a state of nudity, disseminating visual material of a child in a state of nudity, possession of child pornography and dissemination of matter harmful to minors. He was a special education teacher's aide at a middle school, as well as a soccer coach.  One victim has alleged he came to her house and raped her when she was 14. French was arrested on June 28 and released on only $5,000 bail by Judge Geoffrey Packard.

In Salinas, California, John Walter Hawthorn, 43, was sentenced to 10 years and eight months for child molestation and possession of child pornography. Hawthorn was a teacher for 11 years and taught "particularly vulnerable members of our community because they were… new to the country,” according to the Monterey County Weekly.

In Aichi, Japan, prep school owner Takashi Nakagawa, 50, was arrested after selling two photo albums containing child pornography through an online auction.  According to Japan Today, Nakagawa was quoted by police as saying the photo albums were from his private collection.