More than 1,000 images of child porn found at a Grand Traverse County apartment complex, but that’s not all.
Michigan State Police detectives arrested Richard Farley Thursday.
He told police he had problems with child porn.
Court documents also state Farley told investigators that he had a diaper fetish, and likes to dress up in a butterfly patterned “onesie” and wear adult sized diapers.
Detectives say they discovered more than 1,400 images of child sexually abusive material in his apartment in Garfield Township.
9&10’s Caroline Powers and photojournalist Jeremy Erickson spoke to investigators about what led them to Farley.
“Tumblr had intercepted a couple of images that they believe could very well be child pornography.”
A red flag on two images posted to the blogging website Tumblr had detectives with the Michigan State Police Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force quickly trying to find Richard Farley.
“They had found what they believed was child sexually abusive material being distributed through their servers,” says D/Sgt. Wesley Smith. “The image was determined not to be child pornography, but it was fashioned in such a way to make it appear that it was.”
Michigan State Police say that the pictures they got from Tumblr had GPS coordinates on them, which led them to a much bigger discovery at an apartment complex in Traverse City.
“Child pornography that are not from this area are still certainly victims, but there was no local victims,” D/Sgt. Wesley Smith says.
What detectives did find was more than 1,400 child porn images, and a grown man who enjoyed dressing as a baby.
“It’s exploitations of children. People have said it’s a victimless crime, well that’s definitely not the case because each time that image is viewed that’s an additional time that child is victimized,” says D/Sgt. Wesley Smith.
Child and Family Services says there is hope for children who become victims in these terrible crimes.
“We have a program called Helping Children Heal,” says Amanda Elliot. “They do really specialized counseling for those kids. A lot of summer activities that they can participate in which helps to let them know that they’re not alone.”
Farley is out on bond and charged with three counts of possession of child sexually abusive material and one count of using a computer to commit a crime.
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