SUSPECT’S LARGE NUMBER OF CHARGES HAS HIM FACING POTENTIAL OF DECADES IN PRISON
A western Lawrence County man is facing a large number of charges in connection to child sexual abuse material.
According to a press release by the Kentucky State Police, William Matthew Howard, 34, of Adams, Kentucky, was arrested on Thursday September 3, and was charged with twenty counts of distribution of matter portraying a sexual performance by a minor, after an investigation by a KSP anti-child sex crime unit in Frankfort.
William Howard was arrested as the result of an undercover Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) investigation. The KSP Electronic Crime Branch began the investigation after discovering the suspect uploading images of child sexual exploitation online.
The investigation resulted in the execution of a search warrant at a residence in Adams, Ky on September 3, 2020. Equipment used to facilitate the crime was seized and taken to KSP’s forensic laboratory for examination. The investigation is ongoing.
William Howard is currently charged with 20 counts of:
* DISTRIBUTION OF MATTER PORTRAYING A SEXUAL PERFORMANCE BY A MINOR, 1ST OFFENSE; a Class D felony with a prison sentence of 1 to 5 years in prison for each charge, for total of possibly of 20 to 100 years in prison.
William Howard was lodged in the Big Sandy Regional Detention Center in Paintsville. He is currently being held on a bond of $10,025 full cash only.
###
The Kentucky Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force is composed of more than twenty-six local, state and federal law enforcement agencies. The mission of the ICAC Task Force, created by the United States Department of Justice and administrated by the Kentucky State Police, is to assist state and local law enforcement agencies in developing a response to cyber enticement and child sexual abuse material investigations. This support encompasses forensic and investigative components, training and technical assistance, victim services, prevention and community education. The ICAC program was developed in response to the increasing number of children and teenagers using the internet, the proliferation of child sexual abuse material, and the heightened online activity of predators searching for unsupervised contact with underage victims.
If he has children or is around children I hope they are checked to see if they have been molested. Such a sick man!
Most sickening thing I’ve ever seen, I personally knew him and I wouldn’t have ever imagined he’d do this.
Just a plain sicko, should have him castrated, cut his genitals off and put them in a glass jar outside of his cell, let big a big black man stay in the cell with him and do to him what he wanted to do to these little girls and boys. Just sickening
What happened with this? Was he sentence yet?
Charges were dropped. He was falsely accused.