Rigby man charged after allegedly possessing child porn
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Editor’s note: This story contains disturbing material. Discretion is advised.
RIGBY — A 53-year-old Rigby man was arrested Wednesday night after allegedly possessing sexually exploitative material and exchanging back-and-forth messages with a woman about it.
Dale Hensel has been charged with one count of felony willfully possessing or accessing child sexually exploitative material. Investigators with the Idaho Internet Crimes Against Children Unit (ICAC) arrested him with the help of the Rigby Police Department and the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.
The crime allegedly happened between Oct. 1 and Oct. 25, 2022.
According to the affidavit of probable cause filed in Jefferson County, a detective got a cyber tip on July 17 this year from the National Center of Missing and Exploited Children regarding a person who uploaded a video of child sexual abuse material to an account with a 208 area code.
The person who uploaded the video was identified as Rexanna Johnston. EastIdahoNews.com has previously written about her. Click here to read.
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In early August, she was charged with six counts of felony possessing or accessing child sexually exploitative material. Then, she was additionally charged with three counts of lewd conduct with a child under 16, three counts of causing, inducing or permitting a child to engage in or be used for child sexually exploitative material, and one count of knowingly distributing child sexually exploitative material.
During the investigation into Johnston, a search warrant was granted for her home and her electronic devices. Law enforcement found a name, “Dale,” in her messages on her phone. He was identified later as Dale Hensel.
In those messages, Johnston sent Hensel several links to bestiality videos. They both began to exchange sexually explicit messages about children, court documents said.
The nature of the content is too disturbing for EastIdahoNews.com to write in detail about.
After a few more messages back and forth, Hensel allegedly says to Johnston, “Wish someone would find us a big stash of cp.”
Based on the detective’s training, “cp” is short for child pornography. Hensel then set the disappearing timer message to one hour, meaning that any sent messages get erased one hour after they are viewed, court documents said.
The detective found approximately 3,000 messages between Hensel and Johnston that were saved on the phone. The messages started on Oct. 20, 2022.
Johnston and Hensel allegedly kept talking about sexual acts, children and the kind of sex they like.
The detective was granted a search warrant for Hensel’s residence and his devices on Wednesday.
During a law enforcement interview with Hensel, he admitted to talking with Johnston via messages.
The detective asked a question about a specific picture that Johnston had sent to Hensel showing a child’s private parts, and Hensel said he would not answer the question without his attorney, court documents said.
The detective asked a lot of questions about the sexual conversations that Hensel and Johnston had. Hensel reportedly told the detective that he was “just playing to Rexanna’s fantasies,” court documents said.
Hensel told the detective during the interview that when he would receive images from Johnston, he would delete them.
Hensel was given a $50,000 bail. If he posts bond, he is ordered to report to pretrial services, and he cannot contact any minor or Johnston. He is additionally prohibited from accessing or using the internet or devices that are capable of having the internet.
The felony charge is punishable by up to 10 years in prison and/or a $10,000 fine.
Though Hensel has been charged with this crime, it does not necessarily mean he committed it. Everyone is presumed innocent until they are proven guilty.
He is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on Sept. 13 at 1 p.m. at the Jefferson County courthouse.
“I’m so grateful for the work that our talented ICAC team does to protect the most vulnerable in Idaho. My office will continue to put every available resource into finding and prosecuting the criminals who victimize Idaho’s children,” Attorney General Raúl Labrador said in a news release Thursday.
Anyone with information regarding the exploitation of children is encouraged to contact local police, the Attorney General’s ICAC Unit at (208) 947-8700 or the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at (800) 843-5678.
The Attorney General’s ICAC Unit works with the Idaho ICAC Task Force, a coalition of federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, to investigate and prosecute individuals who use the internet to criminally exploit children.