Police charge man with child porn

Police charge man with child porn

Ayer resident was convicted in 1984 of indecency in Texas
By Lisa Redmond, lredmond@lowellsun.com
12/17/2009

AYER -- A 56-year-old Ayer man, who became the focus of an investigation after state police searching a child-pornography Web site found he was allegedly offering to share files, allegedly had hundreds of files of child pornography on his computers during a recent search of his home.
Dale E. Cole, who lives at 43 Pleasant St., was ordered held on $15,000 cash bail after pleading innocent in Ayer District Court yesterday to distributing material showing a child in a sexual act and two counts of possession of child pornography.

Prosecutor David Rubin sought $50,000 cash bail, claiming that Cole, who faces a 10-year sentence if convicted of distribution, became the focus of a state police investigation on Dec. 8.
But defense attorney Robin Gagne argued that Cole should be released on personal recognizance or low bail because he poses no flight risk.

Gagne said that since he was honorably discharged from the Air Force, where he was a medic, Cole has worked for the past 15 years as a pharmacy technician at the Veterans Administration Hospital and cares for his elderly mother and father, who live in a nursing home.
Although acknowledging that Cole has a 1984 conviction in Texas for indecency with a child, for which he was placed on probation for 10 years, he has had no legal problems since.
But Middlesex District Attorney Gerard Leone said, "The defendant's conduct is especially troubling considering his previous conviction where he indecently violated a child in Texas. Children are our most vulnerable victims, and we will continue to vigorously investigate and prosecute cases of child pornography and exploitation that oftentimes lead to physical abuse."
In addition to that case, Cole was prosecuted in 1992 for allegedly sexually assaulting a 10-year-old boy who played on the Pop Warner football team Cole coached in Townsend, according to published reports from the time.

At the time, then Assistant District Attorney Martha Coakley cited the 1984 Texas conviction and said Cole faced up to life in prison because the charges were a subsequent offense.
Cole, who also then lived at 43 Pleasant St., Ayer, was later acquitted of those charges in Middlesex Superior Court.

On Dec. 8, an officer searched an Internet file-sharing network for a digital video file that he knew depicted an identified child engaged in sexual activity. The network returned a list of other users offering to share that file, and the officer identified an Internet protocol address as coming from Massachusetts.

The officer then made a direct connection with that computer and looked at the list of other files that computer was offering to share. That list had more than 190 entries, as well as names of multiple files that appeared to be child pornography.

Based on information obtained, the Massachusetts State Police then traced the IP address in question back to Cole's address and subsequently applied for a search warrant for Cole's home.
Cole allegedly told police he had child pornography, admitted to using an Internet-based network to obtain and/or collect child pornography, and admitted to storing the child pornography before deleting it, allowing other Internet users to download their own copies of the contraband.

Police saw that Cole was storing at least 200 more child-pornographic files categorized in folders on a laptop and desktop computer. There were also reportedly multiple files of child pornography found in a computer in the defendant's bedroom.

Cole's next court date is Dec. 30.
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