commentary by Patrick H. Moore
Twisted souls who experience sexual arousal from viewing child pornography (CP) inhabit a shadowy world of shame and obsession in which they typically obtain their horrific images online, often utilizing peer-to-peer platforms in which they engage in the despicable practice of trading their images back-and-forth with other child pornographers. Some of these same folks also inhabit kiddie porn chat rooms in which they often egg each other on, trying to see who among them can fabricate the most deranged examples of sexually exploiting children. And of course, in some instances, their stories are true
It must be noted that Federal Sex Agents also inhabit these chat rooms and do everything in their power to persuade other “members” to plot and plan to get their hands on an actual child. Under Federal law, crossing state lines to molest a child will get you anywhere to 20 to 40 years in Federal prison if convicted. Operating on a peer-to-peer platform and Distributing and Receiving illegal images will typically get you anywhere from 5 to 10 years in Federal prison. In Southern California, individuals who simply possess these illicit images, in today’s sentencing climate, will usually receive sentences ranging from 1 to 5 years, depending on the judge and the circumstances.
It is likely that most individuals who simply possess these images are not hands-on sex offenders though some of them probably (or undoubtedly) are.
For these images to exist, someone has to be making them. Historically, much of the child pornography available on the internet has been manufactured in the Scandinavian countries and in Eastern Europe. Some of it, of course, is produced in the U.S. With cell phones, anyone who molests a child can produce images depicting his or her hideous actions.
In what is certainly a rather unusual case involving the manufacture of child pornography, a 16-year-old Plant City, Florida boy, Jared Kyle Henry, was arrested Sunday not only for 93 counts of possession of child pornography, but also for 9 counts of promotion of a sexual performance by a child and four counts of lewd and lascivious molestation.
Sebastian Murdoch of Huffington Post reports that Henry, who attends Plant City High School, was booked into the Hillsborough County Jail.
Agents with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement Tampa Bay Regional Operations Center Cyber High-Tech Crime Squad began investigating Henry in September 2014 after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations received a tip from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police that a computer user in Plant City, Fla. was sharing images of child pornography online.
On Oct. 1, 2014, FDLE and HSI Agents executed a search warrant at Henry’s residence where they located numerous images of child pornography. During the course of the investigation, agents determined that Henry molested the child in the images to produce the child pornography in his possession.
Thus, Henry is essentially guilty of most of the possible children pornography charges. He produced the CP in his possession by molesting a child and creating images depicting the molestation. He then apparently shared at least some of the images online which suggests, although I have no proof, that he was also interested in trading some of the images he produced for other images possessed by other “traders”.
The authorities are naturally concerned that Henry may have molested other victims and perhaps made pornographic images from these possible illicit encounters.
The suspect is being held on an $802,000 bail and the FDLE has asked that anyone with any information involving other potential victims call Special Agent Michael Miller at 800-226-1140.
Students at the boy’s high school are naturally reeling from the news.
“I never thought that a 16-year-old would be doing that,” student Korey Jackson told WTSP.
* * * * *
This is a horrible situation. At least one child has been molested by a child and the molester has reportedly shared images of his victim with other deviants on the internet. Henry is being charged as an adult. (At present he is still charged at the State level although the case could go Federal in which case he would probably be looking at a much longer prison sentence.)
Although it’s certainly understandable that people would be furious at this teen based on the hideous nature of his crime, there is a strong possibility that he was molested himself at some point (and possibly repeatedly) during his childhood. As I’ve stated before, being the victim of sexual molestation is often a triggering cause in future serious criminal activity on the part of the victim child.
What is unusual in this instance is the fact that Henry began to manufacture child pornography at such a young age. I’m not personally aware of any other case in which a suspect engaged in this vice prior to adulthood.
The burning desire to possess child pornography can justly be called a national problem of the first magnitude. It exists not only among ordinary “civilians” but also among law enforcement personnel, the military and even judges. For example, in January 2011, the Boston Globe discovered that Defense Department investigators had failed to finish reviewing 1,700 cases of Pentagon employees (and contractors) purchasing and downloading child pornography. I’m not sure how many of these cases were actually prosecuted but I’m fairly certain that many of them were not. I do know that a few of these offenders were convicted and were sentenced to prison time. It is possible (if not probable) that folks in positions of so-called “authority” sometimes (or often) get a free pass when caught possessing or distributing these unnatural images.
Just another nasty day in the cruel world of the sexual exploitation of children.