Overseas child solicitation case has roots in Campbell County

By Carrie J. Sidener

Published: November 13, 2008

An Internet child solicitation case reported in Campbell County has brought two investigators from the United Kingdom to the area to gather evidence.

The unusual collaboration with local law enforcement began after a Campbell County woman reported in May 2007 that a man made an inappropriate reference to her and her child through an online chat room, said Special Agent Barry Stephens of the Virginia State Police.

The Campbell County Sheriff’s Office referred the case to the State Police’s Bureau of Criminal Investi-gations, which discovered the man lived in South Wales.

Stephens said his investigation was forwarded to the South Wales Police Department, which sent investigators Tudor Thomas and Symon Kendall to Lynchburg this week to continue their investigation of the crime and bring charges against the man.

While joint investigations involving police departments an ocean apart are rare, the prevalence of computer-based crimes is blurring jurisdictional lines.

“It’s not very common at all,” Kendall said of traveling overseas for an investigation. “The world is getting to be a smaller place. Any report involving possible sexual acts with a child needs to be investigated thoroughly.”

After receiving the case, Thomas said investigators detained the man and questioned him, but have yet to file formal charges. Kendall and Thomas arrived Monday in Lynchburg to conduct further interviews and gather evidence needed for prosecution in the South Wales court system.

“We’ve had huge amounts of cooperation,” Thomas said. “Without it, we would not be able to pursue this.”

While laws governing these types of computer crimes differ between the U.S. and the United Kingdom, Thomas said there are some similarities. Charges against the man could pertain to child solicitation.

“A major part of our trip has been ensuring that we have enough to go to court,” said Thomas.

Stephens said this is the only case that he is aware of in Central Virginia with this kind of international cooperation.

“You are going to see this more and more,” Stephens said. “Internet has made crime international. You can commit a crime in any place in the world from any place in the world.”

Stephens said it took a few months to gather the case together here before forwarding the investigative information to South Wales. Then backlogs in computer forensics delayed the case further.

“They are following up on the investigation we had done,” Stephens said. “They needed to do interviews that we did before to take to the prosecutor so they are not trying to prosecute this case with something I sent over.”

The two investigators will remain in town until Sunday. Stephens said the Campbell County part of the investigation had to be carefully scheduled to make sure that they could accomplish everything they need to bring the case to trial.

“We’ve really kind of bonded over how much we have in common as law enforcement,” Stephens said.

Thursday, the two investigators were at the Central Virginia Police Training Academy to experience some of the firearms training that local officers go through.

It’s a foreign experience to them, since their officers do not carry guns.

How officers cope with similar situations, like a traffic stop, is very different, Thomas said, when there is a gun involved.

“Guns terrify me,” Kendall said. “It doesn’t feel right.”

While in town, Thomas and Kendall will take in a Liberty Flames football game Saturday.

“We have managed to get in some socializing,” Thomas said. “Everyone has been very hospitable and Macados (restaurant) has kept us in Guinness.”