A Salem man faces more than a dozen sex crime felonies in connection to allegedly collecting and sharing child pornography on the internet, according to documents filed in circuit court.
William L. Larson, born 1958, was charged in a March 13 warrant with felony charges of one count of first-degree promoting child pornography and 15 counts of possession of child pornography. His bond was set at $500,000.
An investigation into Larson was launched stemming from a cyber tip sent to the Missouri Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force from a social media platform, according to the case’s probable cause statement. The statement says investigation by the South Central Missouri Computer Crimes Task Force identified two accounts engaging in suspicious activity, leading to investigators executing a search warrant for those accounts. Multiple pieces of evidence were obtained connecting Larson to the accounts. The statement also lists multiple filed of child pornography that were allegedly downloaded and shared by the account’s user.
During a March 12 interview with law enforcement, the statement quotes Larson as admitting to collecting child pornography over several months and years, and distributing it to people on the internet. A search of a cell phone seized from Larson also found hundreds of additional files of child pornography.
The charges described above are merely accusations, not evidence of guilt. Evidence supporting the charges must be presented before a court of competent jurisdiction whose duty is to determine guilt or innocence.
