A 40-year-old Redwood City man was arrested Thursday morning on charges of communicating with multiple minors for the purposes of sexual gratification and possessing and distributing child pornography, according to the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office.
At 7 a.m., David Richard Hackworth was arrested at his home in the 3500 block of Jefferson Avenue on charges including persuading a minor to perform sexual acts; distributing sexual content by using a minor depicting sexual acts; communicating with a minor for the purposes of sexual gratification; sending obscene material to seduce a minor; distribution of child pornography; and possession of child pornography, according to the sheriff’s office.
Sheriff’s detectives said they recently received a tip from the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office in Colorado that Hackworth had been communicating with a 10-year-old victim from Colorado for the purpose of sexual gratification. An investigation led to today’s serving of a search warrant, during which authorities found over 200,000 images of child pornography on Hackworth’s computer and personal electronics and learned Hackworth had been communicating with multiple minors, the sheriff’s office said.
The investigation remains open and active and detectives are working with the Silicon Valley Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (SVICAC).
Anyone with information to call Detective Chiu at 650-363-4057 dchiu@smcgov.orgor; Detective Paterson at 650-363-4881 kpaterson@smcgov.org. For more information on the Silicon Valley ICAC Task Force, please visit here.
