BURRILLVILLE – Police have arrested a 16-year-old Burrillville man in connection with what they say is an ongoing child pornography investigation that began in October.
The juvenile was arrested on Tuesday, Jan. 28, according to a release from the Burrillville Police Department.
According to police, the suspect asked multiple underage girls to send him nude photos of themselves, which he then distributed to other individuals. Several search warrants reportedly turned up a “large quantity” of images and videos, the release stated.
The teen was reportedly accompanied by his parents when he turned himself in to police on Tuesday, and was transported to family court in Providence. He has been charged with five counts of extortion, five counts of cyber harassment, distribution of child pornography and possession of child pornography.
It is not the first time Burrillville police are forced to investigate explicit images shared between minors.
In a local scandal that went viral in 2017, police discovered pornographic pictures of more than 100 teenage girls from town – going back for more than a decade – that had been saved and shared among a generation of Burrillville boys, used like trading cards and kept in private Dropbox files.
The juvenile charged this week was arraigned, and ordered to be held at the Youth Detention Center.
