CINCINNATI – A University of Cincinnati professor used the email account DADDY.CRUEL@YAHOO.COM to collect and trade child porn online and admitted doing it every day for the last five or six years, according to an FBI affidavit.
Holt Parker, a professor of Classics, told the FBI he planned to commit suicide if he ever got caught, the federal agents said.
The affidavit says Parker called himself Mr. Cruel Daddy online. It also says:
- Parker tried unsuccessfully to destroy a flash drive before allowing agents to conduct a search warrant at his Clifton home Tuesday. Parker told agents he recently downloaded "thousands of files of child pornography to this device."
- Parker sometimes used his wife's UC email account to access his DADDY.CRUEL@YAHOO.COM account. She is also a UC professor.
- CRUEL made sordid comments about child sex in emails and chats with other child porn collectors. Among them, CRUEL crudely bragged about having sex with an 8-year-old girl. When a chat partner described a video of a 4-year-old in a sex act, CRUEL replied, "love that," "show me," "please!" in sequential messages. CRUEL also said he desired to have sex with minors.
- During the FBI search, Parker apologized to his wife "for his behavior and ruining their lives."
The FBI arrested Parker, 59, at his home Tuesday morning. Parker faces one count of distribution and receiving child porn and one count of destruction of property to prevent seizure.
The affidavit was signed by Special Agent Gabriel C. Hopkins, who said he headed the Parker investigation.
Yahoo first alerted authorities to CRUEL's online activity on July 20, 2015, Agent Hopkins wrote. He said Yahoo reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that DADDY.CRUEL@YAHOO.COM sent two files containing prepubescent children engaged in sex acts on Sept. 18, 2014 and Sept. 20. 2014.
Yahoo said it investigated the DADDY.CRUEL email account and "multiple chat messages were observed where the user of the account discussed trading images and videos with other users," the affidavit says.
According to Agent Hopkins, the FBI got a subpoena and requested Cincinnati Bell to track activity from the IP address. Bell was unable to provide information back to September, 2014, but it tracked more recent activity that led them to Parker.
The DADDY.CRUEL account was created on Oct. 10, 2008 and deactivated on July 29, 2015. ANNE_THRAX@YAHOO.COM was listed as the alternative contact account for DADDY.CRUEL. That account was created on Sept. 10, 1998 with the user's name listed as 'Ms' with a location of New York.
Parker, who is being held in the Butler County Jail, appeared in federal court Friday and could be released on $250,000 bond Saturday. Pending his release, Parker was ordered to home confinement with electronic monitoring except for church, medical and court-approved trips. He is barred from using computers and smartphones, as well as contact with minors.
Parker was also ordered to undergo a mental health evaluation and counseling and to surrender his passport.
After his arrest, UC said it suspended Parker and barred him from university property.
Parker has worked at UC since 1991. He holds a PhD in Classics from Yale University, according to his bio on the UC website. He specializes in gender studies, literary theory and linguistics and has published on sexuality, slavery and sadism, among other subjects.
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