**TRIGGER WARNING — Graphic details of child sexual abuse***
These details are being included for the sake of informing the public fully of the severity of the charges.
On Tuesday, March 15, 2016, senior Thomas Skoog was arrested and the following day, he was charged with five counts of possession of child pornography. The criminal complaint filed by the Outagamie County district attorney’s office on March 16 provides further information from various police agencies.
According to the complaint, police were tipped off that several images constituting child pornography had been uploaded to Google+ as early as December of 2015. The computer and IP address associated with this activity were later confirmed to belong to Skoog. After an extended investigation, Skoog’s computer was seized from his room in Kohler Hall.
A digital forensics examiner found “thousands of images of child erotica and child pornography on the hard drive of the computer.” Of those images allegedly found on Skoog’s computer, five have been used to charge him with offenses under Wisconsin Statues 948.12(1m) and (3)(a). All images are of “young, likely prepubescent, female[s]” in sexual acts and poses.
These charges constitute a Class D Felony and can lead to a maximum of 25 years in prison, $100,000 in fines or both for each count. Skoog will be presented at the Outagamie County Justice Center for a preliminary hearing on Thursday, March 24.
The Lawrentian will continue to update its readership with any developments and investigate further into this case as well as the accused’s prior history.
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On Wednesday, March 23, this article was altered to provide a link to the detailed descriptions of photos chosen on which to press charges, accompanied by a second warning as to the graphic nature of that information. The following day, the link was removed entirely.
