45 arrested in ‘horrific’ child-porn bust in Polk
Forty-five people, including four teenagers, have been charged with possession of child pornography after a four-month investigation in Polk County, officials announced Thursday.
Donna Wood, spokeswoman for the Sheriff’s Office, said this was the biggest bust in Florida history based on the number of people arrested. Detectives seized 12,000 pornographic images of children.
Sheriff Grady Judd described the images as “horrific displays of children,” according to a news release.
“There’s enough law-enforcement work we could stay busy with — other cases that publicly make more noise, if you will — but these child pornographers are silently, sadistically raping our children,” Judd said.
“When there’s a market for child pornography, and people are willing to provide that child pornography, then there are victims of child abuse.”
He said children depicted in the porn were boys and girls ranging from 1 to 12 years old. The 12,000 images collected included pictures and video ranging from a few seconds to 90 minutes.
All of the images collected will be destroyed once the cases are over, but the images cannot be removed from the Internet. Judd said more than 9 million pornographic images of children are thought to be circulating on the Internet.
Those arrested include a father and his adult son, both registered sex offenders, and both charged with 10 counts of child pornography. The son already has served 15 years in state prison for sexual acts performed with a child.
One 16-year-old boy was among the arrested, along with three 17-year-old boys, the Sheriff’s Office said.
Judd said there are warrants out for the arrest of six other men, but they have yet to be located.
Pulled from: Orlando Sentinel
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June 3rd, 2009 at 10:33 am
Sick a##holes!
September 30th, 2009 at 11:03 pm
Oh god those poor children. I wish law enforcement agencies would stop expending energy on the marginal stuff (pirated movies, smoking pot, unpaid parking fines and so on) and focus on the crimes with victims, especially where the victims are under 21. We have to protect our children, it’s the only worthwhile thing a person can do. Zero tolerance for child abuse is a start, but I’m starting to think death penalties and castration for convicted perpetrators should be reinstated. Or at very least lock them up and throw away the key. I pray for the poor little kids, their lives are irreparably ruined, no amount of therapy can give them back what they’ve lost, the poor little things are now scarred for life.
I hope that if the law doesn’t have the power to make these bastards pay for what they’ve done, that god or karma will catch up with them. Keep up the good work, Sheriff. The world needs more men like you.