Why Is the Shoals Home to So Much Child Porn & Sex Abuse? Part II

Several weeks ago we blogged on one of our regular bad boys. We immediately received e-mails that this man was just misunderstood and a really nice guy. We also received messages that he has numerous child porn pics on his phone.

We contacted a local law enforcement agency who said the info would be turned over to the right people. Since then, this man has been arrested twice, but not for possession of child pornography. 

Why? Authorities can't just walk up and search anyone's phone or burst in and look at the contents of one's laptop. We imagine many sick individuals in the Shoals possess what's commonly called kiddie porn, but have been careful to make sure the photos are shared in ways that can't be monitored.

These images have never been sent over the Internet? Why? Did they originate locally? That's something for all of us to think about. There's a difference in someone remarking out of politeness that your child is cute and someone who asks if he or she can spend time alone with your little darling. Here's a news flash: Most people don't want to keep your children unless it's a dire emergency or they're richly paid to do so. Remember that.

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You may have read about a large furniture manufacturing concern shutting down in Verona, Mississippi, about 50 miles west of Hamilton. One former employee has been featured on international news, along with photos of her husband and children.

At first we wondered what a bat was doing amid a Christmas display (possibly in Tupelo?). Then we looked more closely and realized it wasn't a bat; it was Tuscumbia's old friend Krampus. That demon really gets around this time of year.

Why Is the Shoals Home to So Much Child Porn & Sex Abuse? Part I

 

Almost every day in the week leading up to Thanksgiving, there was a local news report of either an arrest for possession of child porn or child sex abuse. Is there an epidemic in the Shoals?

Looking first as child porn, many fail to realize how serious this is. Most think of images produced somewhere in a God-forsaken Slavic country that have somehow made it to northwest Alabama. Look again.

At least one local arrest involved a Florence man who made child porn involving a local child. If guilty, he wouldn't be the first local to have produced such images. At least four other cases come readily to mind.

In 2014, Patricia and Matthew Ayers pleaded guilty to producing scores of erotic images of Patricia's young (pre-school) daughter. The couple, who resided just north of Florence, are now serving decades in prison with little hope of ever seeing freedom. We trust no one feels sorry for them.

In 2017, Marcus Paul Smith of Russellville was charged with producing pornographic images of his girlfriend's daughter.

In 2019, Jeffrey Dale Hunt was charged and later convicted of creating child porn in his North Florence home.

In 2022, Michael Tays of St. Florian was convicted of videoing a small child whom he forced to engage in sexual acts.

The above is not an all-inclusive list, but it covers those whose victims were very young children. How did this happen? In at least one case it was the child's own mother. In another, it was a grandfather. In others? We have to ask what the parents were doing when this abuse occurred.

Make sure your child knows who should touch him and who should not. Keep the communication lines open - yes, that means to grill him for information if necessary. 

Next: A local bad boy's trove of child porn...

Thought for the day: In a world of Yugos, be a Cadillac!