Rhode Island man arrested on child pornography charges

Columbia - A Rhode Island man was arrested yesterday after police said he sent child pornography to an undercover detective, said Detective Tracy Perkins of the Mid-Missouri Internet Crimes Task Force.

John Littlefield, 56, was arrested in Riverside, R.I., on suspicion of first-degree promoting child pornography Wednesday by the Rhode Island State Police Computer Crimes Task Force. The Mid-Missouri-Internet Crimes Task Force assisted in the investigation.

Littlefield was charged with three counts of first-degree promoting child pornography in Boone County Circuit Court last month, according to Missouri Case.net.

The investigations started in May, when the suspect started chatting on the Internet with an undercover detective from the Mid-Missouri Internet Crimes Task Force, who he thought was woman with a twelve-year-old daughter, Perkins said. Littlefield told the undercover detective about his sexual fantasies involving young children and started sending a number of images that he had obtained of child pornography, Perkins said.

Rhode Island seized evidence, including computers, from his business Wednesday, Perkins said.

Perkins said that to her knowledge, Littlefield had no previous criminal record.