28-year-old Zachery M. Staffen-Lewis of Mountain View, Arkansas was recently arrested for allegedly possessing child porn. Staffen-Lewis is sad to have obtained the explicit images of children through the mobile messaging app Kik.
The suspect was arrested in the usual way. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received a tip that a Facebook user was sharing child porn on the platform. The Arkansas State Police traced the activity back to Staffen-Lewis. During their investigation, police reportedly recovered child porn on his phone. When asked about the images the suspect is said to have told police that someone on Kik sent him the images.
However, he supposedly wasn’t using the images for himself. Staffen-Lewis told police that he “planned on turning them over to law enforcement but never did.” I’m sure he was just getting around to it right before he was arrested. I’m sure if he was caught with a minor he would have told police that they were just ‘hanging out.’
I’m not exactly sure what the legal protocol is if you do actually receive child porn unsolicited. I remember being told once to delete it immediately but I’m not sure if that’s correct if you’re going to report it to police. Whatever you do, don’t share it even if you’re looking for an opinion about whether or not you should report it. That could get both you and the person you send it to in potential legal trouble. You can always report child porn to the NCMEC’s Cyber Tipline.
And always remember, Kik is the main stomping grounds of sex offenders, pedophiles, child porn collectors, and child traffickers.
Real Crime with Trench Reynolds 