CHILD PORN VICTIM IDENTIFICATION A CHALLENGE

SGT. WADE WILLIAMS IS SUPERVISOR OF THE COLLIER COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE’S EXPLOITATION SECTION,
WHICH IS MADE UP OF DETECTIVES WHO SPECIALIZE IN THE INVESTIGATION OF THE SEXUAL EXPLOITATION OF CHILDREN THROUGH THE USE OF THE INTERNET AND COMPUTERS. Photo by Cpl. Efrain Hernandez/CCSO

The images were disturbing: children who appeared to be as young as 6 and as old as 15 engaged in sex with each other and adults.

Detectives with the Collier County Sheriff ’s Office’s Exploitation Section found the images on an East Naples man’s personal
computer in April 2015.

Luis Anibal Beauchamps was arrested and taken into custody after detectives executed a search warrant on his Dixie Drive residence following a more than yearlong undercover investigation into the distribution and sharing of child pornography on the
Internet.

Detectives first found Beauchamps online in October 2014 when he was offering to distribute child porn on a peer-to-peer network. Detectives determined he had been on the network since January 2014.

When detectives later executed the warrant on his home, they found five video files containing child pornography.

In an interview with detectives, Beauchamps admitted that he downloaded two different programs that are frequently utilized for the purpose of distributing, downloading and sharing child pornography. He also admitted that he searched for terms such as “child pornography” and saws video file names that included “8YO and 9YO” or “2YO or 3YO.” He admitted that he selected
these files and then gave the computer a command to download the files. He then viewed these files.

He also told detectives that he began viewing pornography on his computer more than a year before his arrest and that he believed the children in the videos to be around 11 years old or 13 years old. Beauchamps, 62, is currently serving a 32 month state prison sentence after he pleaded guilty to child pornography charges December 11, 2015. He is also a registered sex offender.

In many child pornography cases, the focus is on the perpetrator. But, what about the children whose photos or videos Beauchamps had in his possession? What circumstances occurred whereby they were used for pornography? Who did this to them? Who is trying to help these children? In these types of cases, the detectives with the Exploitation Section will analyze the videos and other materials, looking at furniture, clothing or other items in photos to try to identify where the images were taken, and ultimately try to pinpoint details about the children so they may be rescued.

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) serves as a central repository for information regarding images of sexually exploited children. Detectives will send digital images and other materials to NCMEC’s Child Victim Identification Program (CVIP), where analysts working from a national database try identify if any of the images were of previously identified victims of sexual abuse.

“The images in this (the Beauchamps) case are known child pornography to law enforcement,” said Exploitation Section Sgt. Wade Williams, who investigated the Beauchamps case.

“What ultimately becomes of child victims isn’t generally available to law enforcement because that information is protected due to the broad range of services provided such as medical and mental health, among other things,” said Sgt. Williams.

In Collier County, once a victim is identified intervention occurs, Sgt. Williams said. Generally speaking, a victim is interviewed at the Children’s Advocacy Center of Collier County, where they are also provided services, including medical exams and counseling. The state Department of Children and Families places them in a proper home away from the abuse. Sgt. Williams is currently the Collier County supervisor of the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, which is a network of more than 60 coordinated task forces representing more than 3,000 federal state and local law enforcement and prosecutorial agencies. Internet child pornography is unlike most crimes investigated by law enforcement, Sgt. Williams said. Local residents may access child pornography images that were produced and/or stored in another city or another country. Alternatively, they may produce or distribute images that are downloaded by people thousands of miles away. An investigation that begins in one law enforcement
jurisdiction could cross jurisdictional boundaries.

Sgt. Williams noted that detectives in the Exploitation Section are currently working on a suspected sex tourism case involving a suspect who had sexually exploitative images of a child they believe lives in Peru.

“We’re working with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to identify that victim,” he said.

The Exploitation Section investigated 70 cases of child pornography and made eight arrests in 2015. Sgt. Williams also is currently the Collier County supervisor of the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, which is a network of more than 60 coordinated task forces representing more than 3,000 federal state and local law enforcement and prosecutorial agencies.