APPLETON, WI (WTAQ) – Appleton Police report that a tip led to the arrest of 53-year old Richard Cook in connection to a child pornography investigation on Wednesday.
Cook was allegedly sharing and receiving explicit images of children through multiple social media platforms.
“Some that are obviously used by the average person, like Facebook. And others that are more known to the communities of people like Richard that are sharing child pornography,” Officer Meghan Cash tells WTAQ News.
This part of the case prompts law enforcement to issue reminders to everyone to keep tabs on what everyone in your family is doing on the Internet.
“This sort of case is a helpful reminder for all of our citizens that online safety needs to be a priority,” Cash says, “That awareness piece of what you’re doing when you’re online, what your children are doing online, and just to always be mindful of keeping that a priority.”
Investigators also found several images of child pornography during their investigation. But so far, it appears that Cook did not victimize any local children himself.
“None of the images during the investigation showed that anything was produced by Mr. Cook. Everything was just possession for him,” Cash says.
But Appleton Police are now working to figuring out who these children are and where the images originated. Investigators are also dealing with other agencies across the country to find the people he was communicating with – and to have those individuals appropriately charged as well.
“We have investigators that are specifically assigned to cases like this. They have all the resources available to be able to process crimes like this – which is obviously something that is very difficult for anybody to have to deal with,” says Cash.
Authorities have recommended twenty counts of possession of child pornography against Cook.
