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Saturday, Nov 17, 2012 1:15 AM UTC

Wis. student faces dozens of child assault charges

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Wis. student faces dozens of child assault chargesThis Nov. 9, 2012 photo provided by the Racine County, Wis., Sheriff’s Department shows Alexander R. Richter, 28, from Racine, Wis., Prosecutors said Friday, Nov. 16, 2012 Richter molested at least six preteen children and recording the assaults in videos with titles such as “Monster Unleashed.” Richter is jailed on numerous charges after authorities say he volunteered to baby-sit his classmates’ students and then repeatedly had sex with the boys and girls on camera as they cried and begged him to stop. (AP Photo/Racine County Sherrif)(Credit: AP)

MILWAUKEE (AP) — A Wisconsin college student is accused of molesting six young children and videotaping the assaults under such titles as “Monster Unleashed,” and police said Friday they think there are more victims.

Alexander R. Richter, who attended Gateway Technical College, was jailed on 49 felony charges after authorities say he volunteered to baby-sit his classmates’ children and then repeatedly had sex with the boys and girls on camera as they cried and begged him to stop. Police said they have identified six children in videos and photographs recovered from Richter’s home in Racine, about 30 miles south of Milwaukee.

Investigators are asking other victims or their families to come forward with information.

“We’re not putting a number on it, but from the evidence we’ve recovered we believe there are additional victims,” Racine police Sgt. Marty Pavilonis said.

Richter, 28, was arrested last week and faces dozens of charges including first-degree sexual assault of a child under 13, sexual exploitation of a child and possession of child pornography. He remained in jail Friday after a judge set his bond at $1.5 million in cash a day earlier.

Richter’s public defender, Margaret Johnson, did not immediately return a message for comment. A preliminary hearing has been set for Wednesday.

According to a criminal complaint, Richter approached at least one classmate last year and offered to baby-sit her children — a son who was then 6 years old and a daughter who had just turned 4. Richter is accused of making at least 11 videos of himself having sex with both children, including one in which police say he guided the boy into attempted sexual activity with his sister.

The allegations came to light last month when the boy, now 7, touched another child inappropriately, the criminal complaint said. When confronted, the boy told his mother that was how “Alex” touches him and his sister, according to the complaint.

Investigators say the children told them Richter had oral and anal sex with them on multiple occasions, used sex toys on them and filmed them taking baths.

When detectives served Richter with a search warrant last week he told them, “I’ll save you time, the things you are looking for are under the coffee table,” according to the complaint.

Officers seized an unspecified number of DVDs, a tripod, cameras and a hard drive.

Prosecutors said some DVDs contained videos of Richter having sex with the two children and photos of the siblings posing naked and simulating sex acts with each other. They said one DVD, titled “Monster Unleashed,” showed Richter having sex in his home with four different children — three girls and a boy. The youngest child, one of the girls, just turned 5 this month.

In some of the footage, the children are crying and can be heard telling Richter to stop or seen trying to fight him off, according to the complaint.

Pavilonis said authorities are trying to determine whether any of the images have been shared with other people as child pornography.

“A number of investigators and officers have children,” the police sergeant said, “and we certainly investigate as if our own children were involved.”

___

Dinesh Ramde can be reached at dramde(at)ap.org.

More Dinesh Ramde.

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