Two Niles parents have been arrested and accused of allegedly sexually abusing their daughter and putting the pictures on the Internet on numerous social media websites, including Yahoo, MySpace and Facebook.
Police first arrested the father, 47-year-old Mark Baldwin, after authorities were tipped off to the situation when someone spotted a naked picture of Baldwin and his 9-year-old daughter on his Yahoo account and MySpace account as
seen here.
“A concerned citizen ended up providing the information to
Michigan State Police and Michigan State Police rolled with it for a while,” explains
FBI agent John King.
Baldwin was initially investigated by the State Police and then Federal Authorities charged him according to a report in the
Herald-Palladium.
Days afterward Mark’s wife and after sifting through documents and computer files, Michelle Baldwin was also arrested on child pornography charges.
Mark Owen Baldwin and Michelle Baldwin are scheduled to be arraigned in federal court in Grand Rapids on child exploitation charges. Mark Baldwin also faces state charges of criminal sexual conduct.
A few of the many horrible statistics.
Childabusecharity.com
The girl reportedly suffers from either cerebral palsy or autism. Images found on Mark Baldwin's computer also allegedly show him having intercourse with the child, officials said.
The Baldwins each face three federal counts of sexual exploitation of a child. Mark Baldwin also faces a federal charge of possession of images of a minor.
The Baldwins were indicted by a federal grand jury last week. The arraignment is scheduled in United States District Court of Western Michigan before Judge Ellen Carmody.
Mark Baldwin, 47, is also facing state charges in Berrien County Trial Court, where he was arraigned in late April on two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct against a child under age 13. The incidents allegedly occurred earlier this year.
According to court documents the father was forcing his daughter to have sex with him and placing pictures of it on the internet. Baldwin is not yet listed on the
Michigan Sex Offender web site, but space is available for his mug and profile if the alleged sexual abuse is proven in court.
Neighbors say they didn’t know abuse was going on in the mobile home park but would have called for help if they had suspected it says
WNDU.com.
"If anything like that happened to my children I would make sure the person got exactly what they deserved. I would not stand for it,” says neighbor Crystal Humphrey.
"If I would have known what was going on, if I knew for sure, I would have called the police on them," says neighbor Tina Morris.
The most disturbing report in court documents is when the daughter divulged sexual abuse by her father on several occasions to
Child Protective Services.
The daughter has cerebral palsy and is now in
protective custody through the state.
When the father was arrested he willingly handed over his computer and camera to police for evidence. Both parents are in custody awaiting further court dates. The report also indicated that Mark Baldwin told police that they "would find child sexually abusive material on his computer once it was analyzed."
Malesky wouldn't say Monday how many images were found, but said it was the nature of the images rather than the number that made the case "more severe."
During the interview, he allegedly told officials that he was “collecting evidence against pedophiles online.”
