Former Attleboro police officer pleads guilty to child porn charge

ATTLEBORO — A former Attleboro police officer pleaded guilty Friday to a charge of attempting to receive child pornography after he posted an online advertisement asking people to send him nude pictures of people’s daughters.

Richard F. Woodhead, 54, of South Attleboro, a former Attleboro police sergeant, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Providence before Chief Judge William E. Smith, who is expected to sentence Woodhead on Nov. 3.

Woodhead was arrested on April 6 by HSI agents and members of the ICAC task force.

According to information presented to the court Friday, between Sept. 22, 2016, and Jan. 19, 2017, Woodhead posted an online advertisement entitled “Perv on your daughter – m4m.” In this advertisement, Woodhead requested to see nude pictures of people’s daughters. Prosecutors say Woodhead posted the advertisement online multiple times between September 2016 and January 2017.

In January 2017, a Rhode Island State Police detective assigned to the ICAC task force discovered the advertisement and responded to it an undercover capacity, communicating with Woodhead via email. In the email, the detective pretended to be the guardian of a young child. During these conversations, Woodhead requested a photograph of the child and described in explicit terms the types of sexual relations he wanted to have with the child.

On Jan. 26, Woodhead agreed to continue the conversations via telephone. An HSI agent, acting in an undercover capacity as the guardian, had three conversations with Woodhead, all of which were recorded by law enforcement. During these telephone calls, the agent and the defendant discussed meeting so that Woodhead might engage in sexual relations with the child. Woodhead also asked the agent to send him naked pictures of the child so that he could become sexually aroused.

On April 6, ICAC task force members and HSI agents executed a court-authorized search warrant at the defendant’s residence in South Attleboro. During that search, behind a wall in a secret compart- ment of a closet off of the master bedroom, a state police detective located a thumb drive and four discs, along with nylons, two bottles of acetone, and a picture of a school-aged female. One disc contained a video, which depicted prepubescent boys masturbating and engaging in sexual acts. The thumb drive contained nude photographs of minor teenage girls engaged in the lascivious exhibition of the genitals.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Sandra R. Hebert.