The Woodstock man, Richard Ensley, was arrested during the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office two-day, multi-jurisdictional sweep to verify the addresses of 181 sex offenders living in the county.
The suspect was not a registered sex offender, but while officers were mobilized, they included the raid as part of the operation.
Ensley has been charged with 25 counts of sexual exploitation of children and is being held at the Cherokee County Adult Detention Center without bond.
“Clearly, it’s the largest we’ve ever stumbled across in Cherokee County,” Garrison said. “We are still conducting forensic analysis of those computers.”
Garrison said Friday that the images and videos obtained from a search warrant executed Thursday night depict female children ranging in ages from infants to 16-year-olds.
The sheriff said investigators continue to process computers seized from Ensley’s home in Towne Lake, located in the 100 block of Grove Park Lane in the Deer Run subdivision, and that some images date back to 1995.
Neither Garrison nor any other investigators, including Maj. Ron Hunton, would say whether any local children were victims.
“We’ve been looking into the case for approximately a week,” Garrison said. “We’re just getting started and are trying to learn as much as we can.”
Garrison said investigators continue to work on looking into the identities of the victims.
“Identifying those victims as we move forward for prosecution is clearly what we’re doing and we’re just getting started,” Garrison said. “It will be a very complicated case but we will do everything we can do to make sure this gentleman serves every day he deserves and in my opinion, (I hope) he never steps outside of prison (for) an act this heinous.”
Lt. Jay Baker, spokesman for the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office, said more charges against Ensley are forthcoming.
Garrison said Ensley worked as a computer analyst in Cobb County and had recently moved from Cobb to Cherokee.
His arrest, among 16 others ranging from traffic charges to sexual exploitation of children during the two-day sweep, was part of an ongoing investigation by the Internet Crimes Against Children Unit.
Baker said of the 213 registered sex offenders in the county, 32 are behind bars and 181 are living at addresses inside the county.
Officers verified 176 addresses and discovered two offenders have moved without informing the sheriff’s office, Baker said.
He said the remaining addresses will be verified over the next few days.
Assisting in the address-compliance operation were the Canton Police Department, Woodstock Police Department, Holly Springs Police Department and the Georgia Department of Corrections Probation and Parole Divisions.
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