Matheson: An 'Organized Collector' of Child Porn?

Robert Matheson, the 67-year-old Sierra Madre resident who served jail time in Nova Scotia, Canada, for smuggling and possessing child pornography, returned to Sierra Madre on or around Feb. 23. Though he is under investigation by and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he has not been convicted of any crime here, nor has he been required to register as a sex offender in the U.S.

The nonprofit organization Child AbuseWatch recently .

Patch spoke with AbuseWatch founder Evin Daly via email about the behavior of pedophiles and what Matheson’s child porn stash could reveal about his personality.

Patch: Matheson was found with about 2,500 images of child porn, 285 videos of teen boys engaged in sex acts and about 10 short stories detailing inappropriate relationships between young boys and family members or authority figures. Is this a small stash, average or very large collection?

Daly: It is a large collection. It may be only part of an even larger collection that may be uncovered by law enforcement. [Ed. note: Police who searched Matheson's home have said nothing about finding a larger collection.]

The quantity indicates that he is [like an organized] collector, possibly of a specific type of child pornography.

Compared to other arrested [child porn] possessors, organized CP collectors [are] more likely to have

• More than 1,000 graphic child-pornography images;
• Child-pornography videos;
• Child-pornography images in non-computer formats like books, magazines and photographs;
• Child-pornography images of children younger than the age of 6;
• Sophisticated computer systems;
• Used sophisticated methods to store or hide images on their computers;

[Ed. Note: the pornographic images and videos on Matheson's laptop were mostly teenage boys.]

Patch: What do the images reveal about such a person?

Daly: The more you find out about the types of images that he had, the more you know about his sexual preferences. And possibly his molestation of children.

The images of child porn reflect the fantasy of the possessor as to what his sexual preferences are and what he would like to do to a child. It does not reflect that he has done anything to a child, unless there is evidence that he has.

Each possessor is unique, as are his fantasies and thus his image collection.

Patch: How many child pornographers collect images and videos?

Daly: Videos are a particularly graphic form of child pornography because they include motion and sound. Thirty-nine percent of arrested CP possessors had moving images in digital or other video formats.

Patch: What do the stories reveal about Matheson?

Daly: The stories on the computer are not illegal; they may reflect his preferences or record offenses.

[Ed. Note: According to Matheson's affidavit, the lewd stories on his laptop involved a 10-year-old boy and were downloaded from a website.]

Patch: Does the quantity of child porn like that possessed by Matheson suggest that such a collector may have distributed pornography?

Images are used as currency for acquiring other images, hence the large number, and that fits the definition of distribution. How else [does a person] acquire the images unless he manufactured them himself?

According to the "Child-Pornography Possessors Arrested in Internet-Related Crimes: Findings From the National Juvenile Online Victimization Study (2005)," distributors of child pornography were more likely than other CP possessors to have

• Possessed more than 1,000 graphic child-pornography images (20 percent of distributors, versus 11 percent of non-distributors);
• Possessed child-pornography images of children younger than the age of six (53 percent, versus 33 percent);
• Used sophisticated methods to store or hide images on their computers;

Images serve a number of purposes, including visible imagery of fantasies, the reliving of molestation if the possessor has molested, his sexual preferences with children, their ages groups, race, ages.

Patch: In your experience, what percentage of people who possess child porn also molest children?

Daly: Possessors of child pornography are people with a sexual interest in children. Research shows that a large number of pornography possessors are also hands on sex offenders against children. We ask which came first, the pornography or molestation, in the case of dual offenders?

Studies of this cause-effect relationship suggest that nearly all offenders committed acts of molestation prior to looking at child porn. They also show that the vast majority of those interviewed in prison admitted to molestation first and possessing child porn afterwards. They do so to relive the molestation and to fulfill the fantasies they have.

In my experience, most who have been caught have a record of dual offenses--i.e. they have molested children and possess child pornography. Statistics derived from caught or incarcerated offenders cannot be transferred to the general population of child porn possessors, as that is an unknown audience in size and behavior.

Daly provided us with these statistics and studies:

• 30 to 80 percent of arrested individuals who viewed child pornography and 76 percent of individuals who were arrested for Internet child pornography had molested a child, according to “A Profile of Pedophilia: Definition, Characteristics of Offenders, Recidivism, Treatment Outcomes, and Forensic Issues,” from the Mayo Clinic.

• From Fantasy to Reality: The Link Between Viewing Child Pornography and Molesting Children

Evin Daly is the founder of Child AbuseWatch and One Child International. He is a Behavior Analyst and a Forensic Interviewer-Interrogator. He has a long history of working with children and families who have suffered from abuse and domestic violence, as well as their perpetrators. Read more about Daly here.

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Patch reached Matheson at his home and he declined to comment.