Gainesville man arrested for possession and transmission of child pornography

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Richard James Ashbrook, 56, was arrested yesterday and charged with 11 counts of possession of a photograph showing a sexual performance by a child and one count of transmission of child pornography using an electronic device.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received a tip on June 21, 2022, that a Google Drive account contained two child pornography images that had been uploaded May 18-19, 2022. Google provided the upload IP address and the email address, name, and phone number provided by the account holder.

The IP address was traced to an address in Pinecrest Terrace where Ashbrook lives with his aunt. Gainesville Police Department served a search warrant at the address on December 2.

Post Miranda, Ashbrook reportedly denied having any child sexual abuse material or child erotica on his devices but later said he had started to write an article about child exploitation but had abandoned it. He reportedly said he had saved some images because he was “trying to see how prominent the problem was.”

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A subsequent search of his cell phone reportedly produced over 100 child sexual abuse images that were saved to the device between May 19, 2022, and November 21, 2022.

Bail information is not currently available.

Articles about arrests are based on reports from law enforcement agencies. The charges listed are taken from the arrest report and/or court records and are only accusations. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. 

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