A Spring Hill woman, accused of creating an elaborate scheme to transmit child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on the internet, is facing multiple charges after being arrested by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE). According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, CSAM uses various internet platforms to transmit sexually explicit images and videos of children.
According to the FDLE, the agency began investigating Spring Hill resident Rhonda Hawkins, 42, after she contacted it claiming to know someone involved in manufacturing, soliciting, and distributing files depicting the sexual abuse of children and who had sent her child sexual abuse material through social media.
She also claimed that the same person offered to arrange for her to have sex with a minor, record the interlude, and sell the images online.
During a subsequent investigation into Hawkins’ claims, agency personnel discovered that the social media profile of the person that Hawkins named was fictitious and that Hawkins herself had created the bogus profile.
The investigation also revealed that Hawkins’ created the impostor media profile to transmit images depicting the sexual abuse of children to herself after she falsely reported that another person had sent the images to her.
As a result of the probe, FDLE investigators arrested Hawkins on Aug. 8 and charged her with one count of falsifying a police report, one count of identity theft, one count of transmission of child sexual abuse material, two counts of possession of child sexual abuse material, and one count of unlawful use of a two-way communication device.
She is being held at the Hernando County Detention Center without bond.
