Panama City Attorney Arrested for Producing Child Porn

Police arrested an attorney in Panama City on charges of creating child pornography.

42-year old Paul Richard Parker Jr. was captured for being involved in a sting operation on the Internet. An investigator on cyber-crime uncovered pornographic videos and found their source to Parker. After Parker is released, he must serve the 'sex offender' probation for 14 years and permanently surrender his professional license.

Investigators with the Child Predator Cyber Crime Unit of the Attorney General arrested Parker last November after an undercover investigation found that Parker promoted porn videos of small children.

In a news release, Attorney General Bill McCollum strongly criticized the act of the person who in a respected profession anonymously hid behind the Internet and maliciously exploited innocent victims. Florida Emerald Coast.com published this in news on September 6, 2007.

McCollum added that the case's details highlight the dangers of online communication with strangers.

Pretending to be a teenager, Parker lured young girls and boys and asked them to make sexual poses in the front of the Web cam. Parker, who recorded these postures, used them to make pornographic films. He also inserted several child pornography films on the Internet, which an undercover investigator on cyber-crime discovered and traced Parker with their help.

By executing search warrants at Parker's residence, police dug out hundreds of videos and images of child porn on his PC and many other types of equipment. Authorities with the Office of Bay County Sheriff and the Cyber Crime Unit arrested him.

Parker pleaded guilty to 73 counts of possessing child pornography; 3 counts of creating child pornography; 1 count of airing child porn on the Internet; and 1 count of encouraging child pornography.

AG Bill McCollum declared in April 2007 that the House of Representatives and Florida Senate unanimously approved a law to upgrade Florida's laws in banning the distribution and possession of child porn and those who trick children to participate in online sex. The law also considered them criminals who solicited young children to perform sex online and then arranged to meet them for further sexual exploitation, he said.

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» SPAMfighter News - 9/20/2007