SALT LAKE CITY — A Vernal man is in jail for allegedly possessing thousands of images of child pornography and child anime pornography.
Derek Walden, 31, is charged with 10 felony counts of sexual exploitation of a minor. Walden is suspected of downloading and distributing child pornography and sharing files containing child pornography via the Freenet peer-to-peer network.
In addition to some 23,000 child porn files, Walden’s apartment contained numerous posters and magazines depicting sexually explicit anime images featuring young children, according to the Utah Attorney General Office’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force
While technically legal, the anime material concerns the investigators.
“The content that’s specifically concerning to us is the child pornography anime,” said Alan White, task force commander. “If a person is into child pornographic anime, it’s not a huge step to get into child pornography itself, or for that matter to abuse a child.”
Walden is being held without bail in the Uintah County Jail.