A 71-year-old Linton man is behind bars on preliminary felony charges of child pornography and child exploitation following an investigation of material posted, received, and disseminated on social media sites. 

Raymond Michael Steadman was arrested Nov. 7 by Detective Kevin Frank of the Bloomington Police Department following a month-long investigation after internet complaints were received from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). 

Detective Frank is affiliated with the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (lCAC). In that capacity, he often receives internet complaints and investigates criminal activity regarding child abuse, child neglect, child exploitation, possession of child pornography, and other sexual crimes. On Oct. 6, he received a complaint regarding the social media site Twitter. 

NCMEC provided eight files from an account, later identified as one belonging to Steadman. 

“During this investigation, I was able to view those files. One of the files depicts four juvenile females standing beside each other naked. The females are well under the age of 18, showing little to no sign of pubic change. The picture depicts the naked female's breasts and genital areas. Another file shows what appears to be a young juvenile female under the age of 12, wearing a sports bra and underwear,” Frank wrote in the probable cause affidavit. “Other files contain several pictures of young female children that are completely naked. The female children are often grouped together, standing beside each other, specifically exposing their bare breasts and genital areas.” 

In another file from Twitter, Frank located several adult pornography files in the deleted direct messages category. In the direct message category, he found additional adult pornography images as well as images related to child pornography. In the tweets media files, Frank was able to locate several images of child pornography, where juvenile females under the age of 18 are showing their bare breasts and private areas in a sexual manner. 

Upon reviewing some of the data, Twitter was also able to determine that some of Steadman’s uses were being conducted on an actual computer. Frank applied for and was granted a search warrant for Steadman’s internet provider as his H Street Northwest Linton home. 

While investigating the internet complaint, Frank received another complaint associated with the original complaint for this case. This NCMEC complaint, received on Oct. 31, involved another social media platform, Instagram. 

The Instagram complaint involved one image, that of a female who appeared to be around age 12 sitting on a piece of furniture exposing her private parts in a sexual manner.

Officers from the Bloomington Police Department executed a search warrant at Steadman’s home on Nov. 7 in which Detective Frank explained he had conducted an investigation regarding possession of child pornography on different social media accounts. Steadman initially denied this activity. Frank reminded him that he had previously spoken to him approximately one year ago in regards to the same activity he was conducting and told him it needed to stop. Steadman then recalled that but then again denied viewing child pornography. Steadman was transported to Linton Police Department for an interview while officers continued to execute the search warrant. 

During the interview, Steadman allegedly admitted to possessing and viewing child pornography. He explained that he gets onto social media sites, both Twitter and Instagram, on his computer and locates child pornography. Frank showed Steadman images from NCMEC complaints and Steadman admitted they were images he had viewed and possessed at one time. Frank also showed him a photo of a girl, about 10 years old, wearing a sports bra and underwear. According to Frank, Steadman admitted to using that specific photo for his profile picture on social media accounts in addition to providing false information to accounts so he could communicate with people. 

Steadman allegedly told Frank of how he communicates with people online and confessed to having individuals send him child pornography online, and upon receiving the images/files, he also admitted to then distributing it to other individuals online as well. He also admitted to chatting/messaging with individuals who stated they were between the ages of 10 and 12 and then asking them to send sexual images of themselves to him.

Steadman recalled Frank’s visit a year ago when he was asked to stop viewing child pornography, but he admitted he didn’t stop. 

Steadman was transported to Greene County Jail. His bond is set at $25,000 surety with 10 percent allowed. 

He will appear in Greene Circuit Court Nov. 10 for an initial hearing when he will be formally charged with: 

• Child Exploitation, a Level 4 Felony

• Child Pornography, a Level 5 Felony