A New York City police officer arrested Thursday on a child pornography charge used social media to send sexually explicit messages to dozens of minors, persuading some of them to send him nude pictures, asking for phone sex and sometimes encouraging self-harm, federal prosecutors said.
Officer Carmine Simpson chatted with at least 46 minors via Twitter since last April, prosecutors said, collecting 18 photos and 33 videos of children he instructed to act in a sexually suggestive manner, along with dozens of other images used for sexual arousal.
A judge ordered Simpson jailed without bail pending trial, saying the 26-year-old officer from Long Island was more of a danger to the community than typical child pornography defendants because he allegedly encouraged some of the victims to cut, choke or hit themselves, sometimes with a knife or belt.
Because police officers are seen as targets for violence behind bars, Simpson is being held in protective custody at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, the same federal lockup where Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell is awaiting trial.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/new-york-city-police-officer-child-porn-arrest