Child Porn Tip From U.K. Leads to Maine Woman's Arrest

Internet video allegedly shows Maine woman sexually abusing a small child.

ByABC News
June 16, 2009, 10:43 AM

June 16, 2009— -- Detectives in Britain teamed up with U.S. federal officers and cops in Maine to quickly track down and arrest a woman who allegedly used a webcam to stream video of her sexually abusing her own young child.

The international dragnet resulted in the arrest of Julie Carr, 30, in Mars Hill, Maine, Friday. Carr, who, in her mug shot was wearing a shirt with the logo "Bad Angel" on the front and had tattoos on both of her arms, is being held in lieu of $50,000 cash bail.

Carr was arrested after a tip went to police in Humberside County in England about a man who may have been involved with child pornography.

The West Midlands police department's Child Exploitation Investigation Team investigated and arrested an 18-year-old man identified only by the last name of Wilde, according to a spokeswoman for the West Midlands Police Department. He was charged with possessing and distributing abusive images of a child and police seized his computer.

According to a West Midlands police statement, investigators discovered during a search of Wilde's computer that a woman, later determined by U.S. authorities to be Carr, had used her webcam to broadcast live videos of her assault on her child.

The statement from West Midlands police said the child in the video was Carr's own and that she is the mother of four children, believed to range in age from 18 months to 5 years, who have since been placed into protective custody.

Cops on both continents declined to say how they tracked the video to Carr, but did say that the video lacked an IP address, which identifies an individual's computer.

British officials alerted U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which relayed the information to Maine police.

Maine State Police Detective Sgt. John Cote told ABCNews.com today that it took less than five hours from the time the tip came in from ICE for state and federal authorities to arrest Carr.

Cote said Maine State Police received information from ICE that the woman, who appeared in "mulitple videos," was believed to operate out of Maine.