A New York City police officer was arrested on child pornography charges on Thursday after he repeatedly posed as a teenager online to request and obtain sexually explicit photos and videos from at least 46 minors, federal prosecutors said.
The officer, Carmine Simpson, 26, was charged with production of child pornography in federal court in Long Island and suspended without pay. He is the latest in a string of officers on the city’s police force to be accused of sexual crimes involving minors.
Prosecutors say that Officer Simpson used Twitter to contact teenagers between the ages of 13 and 17, often requesting that they create pornographic pictures and videos of themselves and send them to him. Officer Simpson told his targets that he was 17 years old and, in some cases, sent them pictures of himself to which he had applied a filter, making him look younger.
At his arraignment, a prosecutor, Megan E. Farrell, said that Officer Simpson had “engaged in a pattern of activity that went on for months online where he preyed on minors, grooming them, chatting with them, and essentially having them produce sexually explicit photos and images for himself.”