Pictured above, Michael Vining arrested in June 2024, convicted of child pornography charges and sentenced to 40 years in state prison. Related article: www.mysaline.com/scso-icac-vining-child-porn
A Saline County man was recently convicted of child pornography charges according to Prosecuting Attorney Chris Walton. On Monday, June 10, 2024, Michael Vining, age 60, of Benton, entered a guilty plea for three counts of Possessing Child Pornography and one count of Video Voyeurism. He was sentenced to 40 years in the Arkansas Department of Corrections by Judge Josh Farmer.
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On March 29, 2023, the Saline County Sheriff’s Department received information from the cyber tip line from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). The tip was concerning child pornography being downloaded to a certain email address. With that information, detectives drafted search warrants and obtained court orders that led to an address in Benton.
After nearly three months of investigation, detectives with the Saline County Sheriff’s Department and the Arkansas State Police served a search warrant upon the house which belonged to Michael Vining. Mr. Vining had several email addresses, was a part of multiple chat rooms all in an effort to view, possess and share pornographic images of children of varying ages.
POLICE REPORT BELOW
Shown above is the police report. Click the image to zoom in.
Upon further search of Vining’s devices, it was found that he had recorded video of a child in his own home, without the child’s knowledge. Investigators determined the video was for the purpose of trading images with other child pornographers, as well as pretending to be juvenile females in online chats. By his own admission, Vining has been addicted to child pornography for decades.
Mr. Walton would like to thank the Saline County Sheriff’s Department and the investigators with the Arkansas State Police Crimes Against Children. Walton stated, “This man was the main character in every parent’s nightmare. He intentionally pretended to be a juvenile female in order to lure other young females into a conversation in an online chat. He was depraved enough to video a child in his own home and used as bait for other child predators.
“Thankfully we have resources such as NCMEC who share information with our local law enforcement officers who can then track these predators down. That is exactly what happened in this case and Saline County now has one less child predator in our community.”
Vining was represented by Patrick Benca, and the State was represented by Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Carrie Robertson.
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