Child Predator Watch: Man Gets 80 Years For Exploitation
Child Predator Watch is brought to you by your friends here at SCDN. Yes, we offer the latest daily local and regional news, but our passion, no our MISSION is to help parents realize the true dangers our children are facing. This is not the stranger danger or the mysterious white van stories we were told. Kids today are exposed to a whole new brand of criminal enterprise. In addition, we have to remember, if there wasn’t a market there would be a supply. So, along with our endeavors to protect the children, we also must expose the perpetrators.
We spend countless hours making sure our readers are educated about how this whole system works and warning signs you can look for in your own home.
In just one day, here’s what the courts have done to combat this problem through the Project Safe Childhood operated by Homeland Security.
Douglas Fountain, age 31, of Colonie, New York, was sentenced to a total of 80 years in prison for 11 felony convictions, including sexually exploiting a child, transporting child pornography, and possessing child pornography. He used cell phones to create videos and images of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct, some of which included Fountain engaging in sexual acts with the minor. Fountain also admitted to sharing some of those images on an image-sharing website operated from another country, and to possessing images of child pornography on his laptop computers, including images depicting the sexual abuse and exploitation of pre-pubescent girls.
Today’s indictments include:
- Tyrone Johnson, age 32, of Merrillville, Indiana was charged with production of child pornography and possession of child pornography. It is alleged that after the victim disclosed that Johnson had been raping her, Johnson asked another individual to pick up his cellular telephone from the property in the jail and destroy it. Instead, the person discovered a video on the phone of Johnson raping the girl and sent the video to another individual who alerted police.
- Troy Kidwell, age 38, of Portage, Indiana was charged with attempted enticement of a minor and receiving sexual abuse images of a child. It is alleged that Mr. Kidwell arranged, using a facility of interstate commerce, to meet up with a 10-year-old girl. Additionally, sexually explicit images of another minor under the age of 16 were found on his cellular telephone.
- Stephen Coleman, age 29, of Gary, Indiana was charged with four separate productions of child pornography charges based on images he allegedly took of 4 different prepubescent minor boys. He was also charged with possession of child pornography.
- Library Employee Indicted On Charges Of Production And Distribution Of Child Exploitation Material: Kurt Batucan Sheldon,29, charged with one count of production of child exploitation material and two counts of distribution of child exploitation material. If convicted, Sheldon faces a mandatory minimum penalty of 15 years, and up to 30 years, in federal prison for the production count and a minimum mandatory penalty of 5 years, and up to 20 years, on each distribution count
Michael David Harrison,52, Sparks, NV found guilty of transportation of child pornography. Harrison faces a mandatory minimum penalty of 15 years, and up to 40 years, in federal prison. According to testimony and evidence presented at trial, Harrison transported multiple videos depicting the sexual abuse of young children from his home in Nevada to Florida. He then transported the videos on a cruise to the Bahamas. Agents from U.S. Customs and Border Protection detected the videos on Harrison’s computer when he reentered the United States. Harrison was previously convicted, in 2009, of multiple sex offenses against victims under the age of 16.
Again, all of these cases happened today. SCDN will continue to inform and educate about the dangers to our children. In the age of the internet, it makes no difference where in the world these creeps live. They will travel. Any of these people could have just as easily targeted a child in our area.