Man arrested on child-porn charges

Published 3:36 pm Tuesday, November 11, 2008

FRANKLIN—A Suffolk man faces child-pornography charges after using the city library’s computer to send sexually explicit messages to investigators in Louisiana.

Christopher Keith Hicks, 33, of 1293 Barnes Road, was arrested Friday outside Ruth Camp Campbell Memorial Library on College Drive after authorities were alerted that he was there chatting online.

In a news release issued Monday, Lt. Tim Whitt said Hicks was charged with reproducing, selling, distributing or electronically transmitting child pornography and using a communications system to solicit a person over the Internet, with reason to believe the person is a juvenile.

Hicks was remanded to the Western Tidewater Regional Jail without bond. Whitt said the investigation is ongoing, and additional charges against Hicks may be forthcoming.

Detectives in Louisiana had first notified police in Virginia Beach and Suffolk that they were receiving sexually explicit messages from a computer in Franklin.

It was not clear if Hicks would face additional charges in Suffolk or Louisiana.