Police Say Newport Man Sent Nude Photos to 14-Year-Old on Facebook

The 24-year-old Newport man who was charged this week on two counts of indecent solicitation of a child and a count of dissemination of indecent material to a minor remains held at the Adult Correctional Institutions in Cranston, apparently unable to make his $10,000 bail.

State Police Superintendent Col. Steven G. O’Donnell said in a release that Edwin Cintron, of 20 Chapel St., Unit 57, was engaged in an “explicit sexual chat” on Facebook with a 14-year-old who lives in West Greenwich.

The chat was discovered by the parent of the child, who contacted police.

During the chat, police said, Cintron reportedly “requested the juvenile meet him for the purposes of engaging in a sexual act with him.”

West Greenwich police solicited help from the Rhode Island Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and detectives assumed the child’s identity on Facebook.

Cintron soon sent unsolicited nude photos of himself to the child and “reiterated his request to meet for the purposes of engaging in a sexual act.”

Task force members were able to identify Cintron as the person sending the images and he was arrested on Monday after police obtained a search warrant.

CIntron is due to appear in court on Nov. 12 for a bail review. He has been ordered to stay away from children other than family members and not use the internet.

The penalty for a conviction of indecent solicitation of a child is no less than five years in prison. The same minimum sentence applies to charges of electronic dissemination of indecent material to a minor and a fine of no more than $5,000, or both.

The Rhode Island Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force actively engages in investigative efforts to identify subjects involved in child exploitation-related activities. The Rhode Island ICAC Task Force Program is administered by the Rhode Island State Police and supports a national network of multi-agency, multi-jurisdictional task forces engaged in investigations, forensic examinations, and prosecutions related to Internet crimes against children and technology-facilitated child sexual exploitation. The Rhode Island ICAC Task Force is comprised of members of the Rhode Island State Police Computer Crimes Unit along with detectives from the Coventry Police Department, Warwick Police Department, Pawtucket Police Department, North Kingstown Police Department, Portsmouth Police Department, Bristol Police Department, South Kingstown Police Department, Woonsocket Police Department, North Smithfield Police Department and special agents from Homeland Security Investigations and United States Postal Inspection Services.