A Benton man is in jail, facing charges related to sexually explicit conduct involving a child.
On the morning of Monday, May 17th, detectives with the Saline County Sheriff’s Office Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force arrested a Benton man on charges of possession of child pornography, which took place over an online messaging service.
Caleb Andrew Gordon, age 32, was taken into custody without incident and charged with 25 counts of distributing, possessing, or viewing matter depicting sexually explicit conduct involving a child – a Class C felony. Five other counts are pending. Gordon has been the suspect in an ongoing investigation involving the online distribution of child pornography. The suspect was already registered as a sex offender prior to this arrest. See previous pictures below:
If this article sounds familiar, there was a recent separate arrest of a man also with the first name Caleb. Story here: Benton man arrested on charges of sexually explicit conduct with a minor
Since 2020, the Saline County Sheriff’s office has been a member of the Arkansas ICAC task force. The group is made up of local, federal, and prosecuting agencies that work together to keep children safe and hold offenders accountable.
“I am proud of the Swift investigation by our detectives that resulted in this arrest,” stated Sheriff Rodney Wright. “The Saline County Sheriff’s Office is committed to relentlessly pursuing offenders who utilize the internet to victimize children.”
Arkansas Law §5-27-602 defines “Distributing, possessing, or viewing of matter depicting sexually explicit conduct involving a child” as follows:
(a) A person commits distributing, possessing, or viewing of matter depicting sexually explicit conduct involving a child if the person knowingly:
(1) Receives for the purpose of selling or knowingly sells, procures, manufactures, gives, provides, lends, trades, mails, delivers, transfers, publishes, distributes, circulates, disseminates, presents, exhibits, advertises, offers, or agrees to offer through any means, including the Internet, any photograph, film, videotape, computer program or file, video game, or any other reproduction or reconstruction that depicts a child or incorporates the image of a child engaging in sexually explicit conduct; or
(2) Possesses or views through any means, including on the Internet, any photograph, film, videotape, computer program or file, computer-generated image, video game, or any other reproduction that depicts a child or incorporates the image of a child engaging in sexually explicit conduct.
(b) Distributing, possessing, or viewing of matter depicting sexually explicit conduct involving a child is a:
(1) Class C felony for the first offense; and
(2) Class B felony for any subsequent offense.
(c) It is an affirmative defense to a prosecution under this section that the defendant in good faith reasonably believed that the person depicted in the matter was seventeen (17) years of age or older.