Former school district employee indicted for alleged child pornography

William Strength | Bannock County Jail CHUBBUCK — A former Pocatello/Chubbuck School District 25 employee has been indicted by a grand jury for allegedly sending and downloading child pornography. William Strength, 43, was indicted on May 13 for one count of distribution of child pornography, and one count of possession of child pornography. RELATED | Local school district employee arrested for alleged child pornography use Strength was initially charged in Bannock County with eight counts of felony willfully possessing or accessing child sexually exploitative material and two counts of felony knowingly distributing child sexually exploitative material. That case has since been dismissed, since Strength has now been charged federally. Strength was employed by Pocatello/Chubbuck School District 25 as a climate control specialist and was no longer employed after his arrest on April 29. Background On Nov. 25, an investigator for the Idaho Office of the Attorney General’s Internet Crimes Against Children Unit was assigned a cybertip from May 20, showing four files of suspected child pornography that were uploaded by a user to the messaging app, Kik. The investigator reportedly tracked the account to Strength, showing that he had allegedly downloaded and shared images of infants and young children being raped and sexually abused. On April 29, Chubbuck police officers conducted a traffic stop on Strength and transported him to the Chubbuck Police Department for an interview, where he reportedly admitted to owning the Kik account, and said it had been shut down. Investigators then showed him two censored child pornography videos found on his account, and Strength stated he recognized them from Kik. Strength also allegedly admitted to recognizing a CGI image “depicting child sexual abuse” that was reportedly found on his Kik account. According to court documents, Strength said he started sharing and receiving child pornography on Kik “about a year ago.” He stated that he “went down a rabbit hole” and was looking at child porn, but stated he “was a different person now that he is taking Ritalin”, a drug used to treat Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. Strength reportedly told the officers that he would delete the illegal content on his phone and said he didn’t currently have any on it. He also denied that he had ever had any “hands-on sexual contact” with a minor. If convicted, Strength could face up to 20 years in federal prison.The post Former school district employee indicted for alleged child pornography appeared first on East Idaho News.
Source: eastidahonews.com