Another step is being taken to prevent Internet predators from harming children in Ohio.
The Ohio Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force held its first training session in Cleveland from January 31 to Feb. 4 for law officials throughout Ohio.
Pedophiles on the Internet lure and groom these children to a point where law enforcement needs to be able to protect these children
said Brendan Sheehan, director of the task force and assistant county prosecutor of Cuyahoga County.
The task force has 76 members drawing from police departments, prosecuting agencies and sheriffs' departments, who attended the training session.
The session gave the investigators throughout the state of Ohio the tools to educate (officers) and prosecute and arrest the pedophiles who endanger children throughout the state of Ohio Sheehan said.
Ohio is ranked in the top third in the country in child exploitation with pornography, Sheehan said, adding the average child spends about 15 hours a week on the Internet.
Athens County Prosecutor C. David Warren said most of the cases of child exploitation in Athens involve downloading child pornography.
He said the rate of crimes usually runs in cycles and that Athens does not have as many cases now because of the number of convictions last year and because the message is being spread that child pornography is a punishable felony.
Warren also added that there was a high number of child pornography downloaded on university computers.
Warren said there were about six or seven cases in Athens County last year involving downloading child pornography or stalking children.
A recent and ongoing case has yielded an indictment for showing pornography to children.
Mainly with the university
we get a lot of stalking and harassment
Rick Olexa, investigator for the Athens Police, said, adding there is also a high amount of fraud and child pornography in Athens.
An Athens man was recently arrested in Hamilton County and admitted to having child pornography on his computer, he said.
Olexa, who is a member of the task force, said he was asked to join by the Cuyahoga County prosecutor because of his past experience in online computer investigation and computer forensic analysis.
The task force brought in experts such as Bill Mason, the task force chairman, and Sgt. Byron Fassett from the Dallas Child Exploitation Squad, to train in fields such as online investigation, search and seizure and technical aspects of computer crimes.
We trained police officers and agencies in child exploitation throughout the agency and how to deal with forensic aspects
prosecution and arresting these pedophiles who endanger our children in the state of Ohio
said Sheehan.
The federally funded task force, founded in 2000, has convicted every felon it has tried.
Pandering obscenity to a minor is a felony punishable by up to three years in prison. Owning and reproducing child pornography is punishable by three to 10 years in prison.
Soliciting sex from a minor is punishable by six to 18 years in prison.
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