Porn victims getting younger
Porn victims getting younger
By ERIC HARTLEY, Staff Writer
2 county men plead guilty in cases involving toddlers
In the past two weeks, two men - one from Crofton, one from Arnold - have admitted in court to using the Internet to trade pictures of infants or toddlers engaged in sex acts.
The convictions reflect a disturbing trend of very young children being victimized, an expert said.
"It just kind of gets younger and younger," said Jennifer Lee of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. "A lot of people think of child pornography as either adults that dress to look like children or they think of the 16-, 17-year-olds. But in reality, that's not the case."
Ms. Lee said she's seen a change just in her five years with the center's
Exploited Child Unit.
On Friday, Kent Martin Rose, 37, of Crofton pleaded guilty to distribution of child pornography and three counts of possession of illegal images.
On Dec. 15, 51-year-old Robert John Tunnicliff of Arnold pleaded guilty to three counts, one for distributing obscene material involving minors and two for possessing child pornography.
Both men will be sentenced Jan. 18 and face a maximum of 10 years in prison on the top counts, though state guidelines will be lower.
State police investigated the two men, who both were members of America Online, after getting "Cyber Tips" from the missing children's center.
Congress passed a law in 1996 requiring Internet service providers to report child pornography to the missing children's center, which tracks known victims and reports cases to police.
During Friday's court hearing, Assistant State's Attorney Michael Dunty said Rose downloaded or sent out pictures of underage girls, including one of an infant having sex with a man and pictures of children and animals together.
When police raided his home, Rose told them he collects adult pornography, but might have accidentally forwarded some pictures of children.
But Mr. Dunty said experts who searched his hard drives found hundreds of illegal pictures and scores of movie clips of children, along with an "eraser" program that can wipe evidence of images from a hard drive.
Rose, who has worked as a graphic artist, also "morphed" pictures, putting an underage relative's picture on sexually explicit pictures of adults and his wife's face on bondage scenes, Mr. Dunty said.
Tunnicliff had more than 1,000 illegal images on his computers, along with 78 videos, state police said. At least one video and three pictures were of children who appeared to be younger than 5.
Police said he admitted the pictures and videos were his and told them his AOL, Yahoo and Hotmail screen names.
Ms. Lee said the Internet has made the trade of such images far easier.
"Before the Internet, these guys would have to order magazines from Amsterdam or some place and wait three weeks," she said. "There's a high risk because these magazines come straight to their house. Now we have the Internet - there's perceived anonymity."
Anyone who wants to report suspected child pornography can visit www.cybertipline.com. Ms. Lee said the Exploited Child Unit averages 1,800 to 2,000 reports a week.
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Published December 24, 2006, The Capital, Annapolis, Md.
Copyright © 2006 The Capital, Annapolis, Md.
