Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Man breaks in PA. home and assaults teen, also charged for assault on 6yr old.

Milton man faces new sexual assault charges

MILTON — A Milton man charged with allegedly taking sexually explicit photos of a 16-year-old girl now faces charges that claim he also assaulted a 6-year-old girl.

On Thursday, police withdrew charges against Thomas B. Flynn, of 362 Wall St., and filed a new array of charges.

Flynn was arraigned before District Judge William Kear of Milton on charges of photographing a sexual act with a child, unlawful contact with a minor, aggravated indecent assault, burglary, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse by force and indecent assault of a child younger than 13.

Kear reportedly raised Flynn’s original bail from $75,000 to $150,000 and placed him in Northumberland County Prison, Sunbury.

Police were called to Evangelical Community Hospital, Lewisburg, on Sunday where the 16-year-old was being treated.

Flynn allegedly entered her home at around 3 a.m. Sunday and took photos using a cell phone camera of the 16-year-old while she pretended to be sleeping. The girl reportedly told police Flynn allegedly pulled down her pajama bottoms as he took photos. Police said they found the photos saved on his camera.

After filing the initial charges against Flynn, police later discovered he allegedly assaulted the 6-year-old by placing one of his hands in her pajama bottoms.

A preliminary hearing has been set for March 6.

Man busted for downloading child porn in a fire station

Milton man faces child pornography charges

MILTON — A Milton man accused of having 10 pornographic images of children and nine videos on his laptop computer was arraigned Monday before District Judge William Kear.

Thomas A. Dreistadt, 21, was charged with nine felony counts of sexual abuse of children and nine felony counts of possession of child pornography.

Dreistadt was stationed with the U.S. Coast Guard in California when the charges were pressed. He was detained and held by U.S. marshals before being transported back to Pennsylvania.

According to reports, police were tipped off that Dreistadt was downloading child pornography using the wireless Internet service at the Milton Fire Department.

Police subsequently seized Dreistadt’s laptop and allegedly found images identified as child pornography.

The Milton man reportedly lived at the fire station for a brief time.

Early reports from the arraignment indicate Dreistadt is maintaining innocence and claiming someone else must have used the computer to download the illegal images.

Dreistadt was locked up in lieu of $25,000 bail. His preliminary hearing has been scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Oct. 2.

50 yr old Texan busted for child porn

Greenville man convicted of child pornography charges

12:10 PM Tue, Sep 16, 2008

A 50-year-old Greenville man has been convicted of possessing child pornography and faces up to 30 years in federal prison, the U.S. attorney's office said today.

Steve Kelby Samples, 50, was charged with transporting, shipping and possessing child pornography after an undercover FBI agent downloaded child porn images from Mr. Samples' computer in September 2006, said Kathy Colvin, of the U.S. attorney's office in Dallas. In January of last year, federal agents seized a computer containing child pornography from Mr. Samples' Greenville residence, Ms. Colvin said.

Mr. Samples pled guilty to the possession charge last month and was convicted last week on the other charges, Ms. Colvin said.

In addition to prison time, Mr. Samples could face up to a $500,000 fine at his sentencing, scheduled for Dec. 18 before U.S. District Judge Jane J. Boyle.

Authorities said the case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a national program intended to protect children from online exploitation and abuse.

Monk in Hong Kong busted for child porn

Monk gets 8 months for stash of child porn

A Buddhist monk who was caught in a British internet sting was sentenced yesterday to eight months in prison for possessing child pornography.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008A Buddhist monk who was caught in a British internet sting was sentenced yesterday to eight months in prison for possessing child pornography.

In jailing Chow Yee-cheong, 41, Deputy District Court Judge John Glass ruled the offense was serious and that the sexual exploitation of children was a global problem that had to be stamped out.

The judge rejected a submission by defense lawyer Herbert Leung Yiu-fai that Chow, who lived at the Chuk Lam Sim Yuen monastery in Tsuen Wan, had purchased the materials to satisfy his sexual needs and was remorseful and ashamed at what he had done.

A psychiatric report indicated Chow was not suffering from any psychological disorder, but recommended he should get counseling.

Leung said the Malaysian-born monk, who arrived in Hong Kong in 1993, was aware that his offense contradicted his religious beliefs, and that he would be expelled from the monastery.

Leung said no level-five - the most serious - material was found among the two optical discs Chow bought in Malaysia, or the 17 videos and 85 photos he downloaded from a commercial child abuse website. The total length of the video clips and optical discs was nearly seven hours. Glass accepted that most of the material was not explicit, and did not include violence. But he rejected Chow's claim he bought the pornography out of curiosity and had only viewed it once.

Glass said the children depicted in the videos and photos were very young and may have suffered some physical harm during the production.

Although Chow did not share, produce or reproduce the child pornography, he indirectly encouraged the exploitation of children by paying for the material, the judge said.

Glass said neither a community service order nor probation was appropriate, but after taking into consideration Chow's previously clear record and his guilty plea, he decided on an eight-month term.

Chow, who holds a master's degree in philosophy, was the first in Hong Kong to be prosecuted in an anti- child sex abuse operation triggered by a British police crackdown on a commercial child pornography website last year.

Local police, acting on intelligence from Interpol, raided Chow's room in the monastery on May 7.

Couple molests and tapes children as young as three months old

Pa. jury weighs "excruciating" child-porn case
By MARYCLAIRE DALE Associated Press Writer
Article Launched: 09/16/2008 04:41:13 PM EDT



PHILADELPHIA—A federal jury began deliberating the case of a man charged with producing thousands of images of himself sexually abusing children, including three infants, one just three months old.

John Jackey Worman, 41, of Colwyn had cameras mounted in the bathroom of a friend who baby-sat children in her Philadelphia-area rowhouse, prosecutors said.

The jury viewed what authorities called "excruciating" evidence for more than a week before starting their deliberations late Tuesday. Worman is charged with 51 counts of producing and possessing child pornography.
"It's excruciating to have to look at it," Assistant U.S. Attorney Michelle Rotella told jurors, some of whom had looked away from their monitors during the trial. Worman had no such revulsion, she said.

"This defendant was riveted. He couldn't take his eyes off it," Rotella said.
Worman's lawyer, Mark Cedrone, told jurors Tuesday that they may hate his client, but still had a duty to see if the government proved its case on each charge.

Worman made the bathroom videotapes over a three-year period between 2003 and 2006, capturing children as they undressed and showered at baby sitter Concetta Jackson's home in Collingdale. Jackson, who pleaded guilty before trial, knew about the camera and assisted Worman with the filming, authorities said.

Worman sexually abused eight other children from 1997 through 2006, including five forced to engage in sex acts that were also videotaped and saved in Worman's computer, the January 1997 indictment charged.
Police recovered more than 1 million images from Worman's computer, they said.

Co-defendant Dorothy Prawdzik of Drexel Hill posed children in front of the hidden video cameras, prosecutors said. The jury will deliberate her case after reaching a verdict on the Worman counts.

Worman has been in custody since February 2006.

Florida Man Busted For Child Porn


Largo man charged in child porn investigation



Tallahassee, Florida -- A Largo man has been arrested in a child porn investigation conducted by the state's CyberCrime unit, Attorney General Bill McCollum announced Tuesday.


Christopher Bobo, 24, is charged with four counts of promoting the sexual performance of a child, and is jailed in lieu of $40,000 bond.


McCollum said investigators traced known images of child pornography to Bobo's home computer, which was seized for further examination. He said Bobo admitted to knowingly downloading the images, including videos of apparent prepubescent children.


If convicted, Bobo could face a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison on each of the felony charges. Additional charges are pending, McCollum said.
FL Attorney General's Office

Only 10 yrs for Iowa man who recorded minors in sex acts

Davenport man gets max child porn sentence
Associated Press
8:19 PM CDT, September 16, 2008

DAVENPORT, Iowa - A federal judge has sentenced a Davenport man to the maximum sentence of 10 years in prison on a child pornography charge. In addition, 55-year-old Donald Colbert was ordered to be on supervised release for the rest of his life and to register as a sex offender.

Prosecutors say Colbert was arrested in June 2006 and pleaded guilty the following May. The district court noted that Colbert caused a minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing a visual depiction.

It said he was eligible for sentencing enhancements based on the fact the offense involved images of minors between 12 and 16 years old, that he possessed of images that portrayed violence and that he used a computer for the offense.

The U.S. attorney's office for the Southern District of Iowa says the case was prosecuted as part of the Project Safe Child initiative.

Child rapist only gets 30 yrs.

September 17, 2008

Man gets 30 years on child-porn charges

A Mason County man was sentenced in federal court Tuesday to 30 years in prison for producing child pornography, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced.

CHARLESTON, W.Va.-- A Mason County man was sentenced in federal court Tuesday to 30 years in prison for producing child pornography, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced.

Clyde H. Hall Jr., 37, of Point Pleasant, pleaded guilty in May, admitting that he took over 20 sexually explicit photographs of multiple children between 2004 and 2006, the news release states.

At the sentencing hearing, evidence was introduced that Hall had sexually assaulted at least three underage girls in Mason and Jackson counties, two while he was on probation from a state conviction on wanton endangerment charges, the release states.

U.S. District Judge John T. Copenhaver Jr. gave Hall the maximum sentence allowed. Hall will also be on supervised release for life if he is ever released from prison.

Copenhaver ordered Hall to pay roughly $27,000 in restitution to pay for counseling for the victims, according to the release.
Congress Considers Child Exploitation Act

Congress considers a bill that would change the way police pursue suspected child molesters. The proposal gained national attention on the Oprah Winfrey show.

We hear from those who work locally with victims and investigate the offenders, and we want to warn you, some of this information is graphic.

Hundreds of children in the Big Sandy region are examined for signs of sexual abuse each year. National researchers say 80 percent of people with child pornography have images of children being raped, and 21 percent have images of children gagged or tied up during sadistic sex.

Laura Kretzer, Executive Director of the Big Sandy Children's Advocacy Center, says, "Yes, there are severe reports of child sexual abuse in our region. Last year we saw approximately 200 children."

Workers at the Big Sandy Children's Advocacy Center and state police are often overwhelmed with caseloads. Investigators handled more than 700 cases since 2006 in the Big Sandy area alone. Some take a year to go to court.

Kentucky State Police Public Information Officer Mike Goble says, "They're tough to get prosecuted, due to the fact that a lot of times there's a lack of evidence, and pretty much you only have the victim's word."

U.S. Senate Bill 1738 aims to change that by increasing police authority to investigate internet crimes against children, among other measures. The idea is that going after child porn collectors will lead police to those actually molesting children.

David Keith, Hollywood actor and board member for the National Association to Protect Children, says, "It makes it a slam dunk case. You basically have a hard drive full of child porn, and you don't have a fragile little child on the stand who has to point her finger at, you know, Uncle Joe."

The legislation would cost more than half a billion dollars, but supporters say you can't put a price tag on a healthy childhood.