Mountain Home Man Busted With 3,000+ Child Porn Pictures, Videos
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Image by Greene County Sheriff's Office
A man from Mountain Grove has pleaded guilty in federal court to possessing thousands of pictures and video of child pornography.
Authorities say Ricky Friend was busted when he took his computer in to be repaired. A employee at the shop found the child porn and called authorities.
Friend was downloading a video as police showed up to arrest him.
Edited news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office:
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – David M. Ketchmark, Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Mountain Grove, Mo., man pleaded guilty in federal court today to possessing thousands of images and videos of child pornography.
Ricky Burton Friend, 57, of Mountain Grove, pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge James C. England to the charge contained in a June 19, 2012 federal indictment.
According to today’s plea agreement, an employee of a computer repair store contacted the FBI when he found child pornography on Friend’s desktop computer. Friend had brought his computer into the store to be repaired after it was damaged in an electrical storm. While working on the computer, the employee discovered the child pornography.
After Friend picked up his repaired computer, law enforcement officers executed a search warrant at Friend’s residence and seized the computer, two digital cameras and other related items. A child pornography video was downloading to Friend’s computer when the officers arrived to execute the search warrant.
Friend told law enforcement officials that he started downloading child pornography from the Internet approximately 10 to 15 years ago and that he downloaded child pornography daily. Friend used peer-to-peer file-sharing software programs to download child pornography.
A forensic examination of Friend’s computer and other items revealed 2,962 images of child pornography and 175 child pornography videos. Some of the videos and images depicted bondage and bestiality involving minor children and images of child pornography where the victims appear to be under the age of 3 years old.
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