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Bella Vista Man Arrested, Faces Child Pornography Charges

A Bella Vista man faces felony charges of possessing pornographic images of children after being arrested by Benton County Sheriff deputies Wednesday. John Oakl...
John Oakley

A Bella Vista man faces felony charges of possessing pornographic images of children after being arrested by Benton County Sheriff deputies Wednesday.

John Oakley, 57, was booked in the Benton County Detention Center and is being held on $60,000 bond, according to a probable cause affidavit. Police said Oakley is a registered sex offender who was convicted in California on child pornography charges after he sent an undercover officer several images of young girls either nude or engaged in sexual intercourse.

Oakley has a July 22 court date.

The affidavit said an officer with the Arkansas State Police asked the Sheriff’s Office to assist in an investigation after the state police received information about a pornographic image on Facebook that involved a girl approximately 10 years old. On May 13, officers received results from a subpoena that the IP address used to post the image was registered to Oakley.

Officers obtained a search warrant for Oakley’s home on Abrahamson Lane in Bella Vista. Deputies from the Sheriff’s Office served the subpoena on Wednesday and found Oakley, his wife and son at home, the affidavit said.

The affidavit said officers found a computer room in the basement and the son told deputies which computer was his father’s. The affidavit said a deputy used a flash drive with software that looks for child pornographic images and the system recognized 20 images on Oakley’s computer in 10 minutes.

The deputy saved the images, the affidavit said, and they included various images of nude or partially nude girls approximately 8-12 years old and multiple images of a boy and girl approximately 14 years old having intercourse. The affidavit said the deputy stopped the scanning process after saving 20 images.

Officers said Oakley asked for a lawyer after being informed of the images, and deputies arrested him. He faces felony charges of possessing child pornography and for computer child pornography, according to the affidavit.

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