Suspect admits to ‘active interest’ in child porn

A Clark County School District substitute teacher arrested Friday and charged with 17 counts of possession of child pornography told police he's had an "active interest" in child pornography for about 14 years, said a police report released Tuesday.

When Aaron M. Ringewold, 26, was first interviewed by Henderson police investigating the downloading of child pornography, he told them he had an interest in females around 14 or 15, the report said.

But one of his laptop computers examined by police showed Ringewold had multiple pornographic images of girls ranging in age from 5 to 11.

Ringewold also told police his girlfriend has been helping him attempt to stop his child porn habit.

The police report said that, "coupled with the fact he had been to counseling, he felt he was able to move on past what he described as 'a problem with looking at child pornography.' "

Ringewold had been teaching at O'Callaghan Middle School in the Clark County School District and was hired as a long-term substitute teacher on Feb. 26, 2006.

Police said there is no evidence the children depicted in the pornography were past or present students of Ringewold.

O'Callaghan Middle School, at 1450 Radwick Drive, near Hollywood Boulevard and Washington Avenue, is closed for the summer.

According to the report, police began their investigation on June 2.

During their research, police discovered that pornographic images were being downloaded to Ringewold's Internet protocol address.

The police investigation discovered that Ringewold was downloading child pornography on a computer from April 13 to May 28.

Police initially had to subpoena Cox Communications to learn that the IP address that was found with images of child pornography belonged to Ringewold.

A judge then issued a search warrant that allowed police to search Ringewold's home for the pornographic images.

The report said Ringewold told police he downloaded the pornographic images through LimeWire, a file sharing software.

Police searched his home Friday, the day he was arrested.

Contact reporter Antonio Planas at aplanas @reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4638.