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Computer Fix Lands Venice Man In Jail On Child Porn Charges

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By KRISTA KLAUS

News Channel 8

Published: July 9, 2008

Updated: 07/09/2008 11:07 pm

A Venice man has been charged with 766 counts of possession of child pornography after a repair technician found about 4,000 images on his computer.

Douglas H. Monks, 57, of 1254 Barbara Drive, was arrested Wednesday. His bail was set at $250,000, according to the Venice Police Department.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement helped with the investigation.

Police began investigating Monk in March based on a tip from an employee of a computer-repair shop. While creating backup copies of Monk's files, the technician, Scott Rhude, found a folder named "preteen gay porn."

"As I dug a little further, it was just overwhelming what I found," Rhude said.

The folder contained about 4,000 images, according to the news release, including pictures of boys and girls as young as 5 performing sex acts.

The images were so disturbing that the lead detective had to take frequent breaks while going over the evidence, police said.

"He's a father," Venice police spokesman Tom McNulty said. "He's a new detective and hasn't been exposed to this type of stuff before. But he did a good job."

Rhude said he was just glad he brought the incident to the police department's attention.

"It's awful to see, awful to be involved in, and the thing that keeps fueling you is you know you're doing the right thing," he said. "You know you're doing a good thing for the community."

Tribune reporter Ray Reyes contributed to this report.

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