NewsWest 9
HOBBS, N.M. - A Hobbs man accused of downloading and sharing child pornography is out of jail after a judge reduced his bond on Tuesday.
Police said the man had hundreds of files showing kids as young as toddlers engaged in sexual acts.
A five-month long investigation landed 50-year-old Gailard Barker behind bars on 20 counts of sexual exploitation of a child.
The Internet Crimes and Children Task Force of the Hobbs Police Department first started tracking Barker back in August.
According to a criminal complaint, investigators found five files believed to be child pornography that were available to share and download.
The files were traced back to Barker's computer and they contained disturbing images.
One video showed a boy and girl between 10 and 12-years-old having sex. Others showed a child as young as six-years-old engaging in oral sex with adults.
The complaint said at one part in the video the young girl waves at the camera. It also said one of the girls in the video is wearing a flowered-patterned dress.
"As a father, a lot of my detectives are parents, anything involving kids hurts us," Lt. Brian Dunlap, with the Hobbs Police Department, said. "It's a little tough to deal with."
Police conducted a search warrant at Barker's house and took over 50 items including computers, thumb drives and CD's.
"Some computer evidence was retrieved, some videos and pictures that was forensically analyzed and determined there were pornographic images of children," Lt. Dunlap said.
Investigators found a total of 717 files. We're told some of the children in the images were as young as three-years-old.
The complaint said Barker denied knowing the child pornography was on his computers the day of the search.
"When he was taken into custody yesterday (Monday) afternoon, he didn't want to give a statement," Lt. Dunlap said.
Lt. Dunlap says this type of arrest is concerning to the department.
"A high percentage of the time these Internet type crimes lead to hands on offenses," he said. "A high percentage of the time, so we're obviously concerned. With Internet access like it is, I think it's a lot bigger problem than we know it is."
But even so, police are glad to have one more person held accountable.
"I suspect that we'll see more of them, but yes, this is a bad case," Lt. Dunlap said. "If we can get one, that's a good thing. That's a win for us."
