51-year-old John Shearen was denied bail this morning after the Florida Department of Law Enforcement claims he downloaded the most child pornography in the state of Florida.
Officers stated that Shearen had more than 500,000 images and videos at his residence in Leesburg, Florida.
Authorities identified Shearen last month after monitoring child porn websites. When they arrested him, he was in the process of downloading more videos via his computer. Children’s underwear was also discovered at the home, which Shearen told agents he wears.
Special Agent Jeff Duncan stated:
“We were able to seize anywhere from 500,000 to one million images and videos. They were stored on several computers and external hard drives to actually being transferred from the computers to separate DVDs, and he has a DVD collection of child pornography. So, we have a lot of work to do. Those initial cases will be charged today.”
Agents added that Shearen admitted to his crimes.
Currently, the authorities’ primary concern is discovering whether or not any of the found images were homemade by Shearen. They are canvassing his apartment complex and neighborhood to find out from parents if the man had any contact with their children. “One of our concerns is we located several items, outerwear of juvenile girls, including bathing suits, in the residence. Our concern is, number one, making sure we don’t have any child victims in this area,” Duncan said.
Duncan emphasized the breadth of this man’s alleged crimes with the following statement:
“He is the No. 1 person that can distribute child pornography throughout the world. And he’s been doing it.”
Shearen faces multiple counts of distribution and possession of child porn and agents stated that more could be added as the investigation continues.
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