SAN FRANCISCO — A teacher at a San Francisco private school is accused of receiving sexually explicit images from two minors in 2013, prosecutors said.
Charles Richard Barrett, 33, of San Francisco, made his first appearance in federal court on Friday, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. According to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California, Barrett is accused of sending the images of himself to two 16-year-old boys and requesting and receiving similar images in return.
Barrett is charged with receipt of child pornography and was ordered to be held pending a detention hearing on Tuesday, the release stated. He faces a prison sentence between five and 20 years if convicted, according to the Chronicle.
Evidence of the exchange of images was discovered recently when federal agents searched a computer in the teacher's home as part of an investigation into his partner, officials said. https://t.co/D8sdOlNmYe
— San Francisco Chronicle (@sfchronicle) April 2, 2022
Prosecutors said that between December 2013 and February 2014, Barrett, who was 24, sent one of the boys sexually explicit images of himself through a text message, the Chronicle reported. The boy told Barrett that he was 16, but the teacher encouraged him to respond with his own images and the boy complied, sending nine photos, prosecutors said in the news release.
According to the criminal complaint, which was filed on Wednesday and unsealed on Friday, the conversation also included “salacious descriptions of the images that were exchanged.”
Barrett had similar text message exchanges with another 16-year-old in 2013, the complaint stated. According to prosecutors, Barrett encouraged the high school student to send him sexually explicit photos of himself and he received at least four photos.
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The complaint against Barrett stemmed from an investigation into Barrett’s partner in June 2020, KPIX-TV reported. Federal agents obtained a computer in Barrett’s home that allegedly contained evidence that he communicated with two minors and received explicit images from them, according to the television station.
Barrett teaches at a private elementary and middle school, prosecutors said. The schools were not mentioned, and it was unclear whether Barrett was still employed or whether he was a teacher at the time of the text messages, the Chronicle reported.
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