Photo credit: Alachua County Sheriff

The people who are given the role of protecting the interests of our children are held to a higher standard, or at least they should be.

Those who take roles in society and careers which are supposed to divert time and energy into how to benefit children, at minimal, are assumed to care for children in general or else they wouldn't be granted such positions, to begin with.

However, in Gainesville, Florida, a former Spokesman for the State's Child Welfare Agency is now charged with some of the most brutal abuses of innocent children imaginable, after 67-year-old Thomas William Barnes was arrested last week after a several-month-long investigation into allegations he has produced and possessed child pornography.

According to<a href="http://www.gainesville.com/news/20171204/former-dcf-official-faces-more-child-porn-charges"> The Sun</a>, the investigation began back in August when the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received a report from Yahoo that the residence at 3500 NW 38th Street in Gainesville, Florida had transmitted what they believed to be child pornography.

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The Gainesville Police Department later investigated the case and charged Barnes one count of possession of obscene material involving sexual performance by a child and one count of promoting a photo of a sexual performance by a child.

Police then obtained a search warrant and reportedly found child pornography on Barnes’ computer. The police report said that the computer contained multiple folders of child pornography that were hidden as subfolders in seemingly innocuous folders. One file titled “Too much” had at least 55 images.

The content included depictions of sexual intercourse with children as young as 6, police say Barnes told them.

As the case went further into examining the electronic devices which were confiscated at the residence, police located an even more disturbing stash of sexually explicit photos of young children engaged in forced sexual acts with adult males.

Monday, the Gainesville Police Department announced an additional ten charges, all third-degree felonies, against Barnes.

Barnes remained in the custody of the Alachua County Jail as of Monday. His bond is set at $150,000.

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