(Faribault, MN) – A Faribault man with a history of violent offenses is accused of sharing child pornography through social media accounts.

Ross Matthew Wenner, 38, now an inmate at the Stillwater Correctional Facility, was charged last week with nine felony counts of disseminating pornographic work by a registered predatory offender in Rice County.

According to the criminal complaint, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension was notified through the Cybertips program of possible internet trafficking of child porn that was later traced to email and IP addresses used by Wenner.

In an interview with Rice County deputies, Wenner admitted to using the email addresses associated with social media accounts that were sharing images of child porn.  He told deputies he had searched for child porn months earlier and had roughly 600 images saved that were child porn.

A search of Wenner’s Instagram account turned up 14 images of suspected child porn, eight of which had been shared with another Instagram user.  A search of his email address found nearly 1,200 images and over 30 videos of suspected child porn.  Investigators also found multiple images of prepubescent girls fully clothed in sexually suggestive poses.

Wenner is a Level 3 sex offender with a violent history. In September 2006, a 12-year-old girl reported to police that Wenner – unknown to her at the time – forced his way into her residence,  held a gun to her head, and sexually assaulted her. He was convicted of 2nd-degree sexual assault and 1st-degree burglary for the incident, but three additional charges of criminal sexual conduct against him were dropped.

In July 2007, he approached an 11-year-old girl in Goodhue County and demanded she get into his car.  He was suspected of making two similar attempts the same day but was only convicted on one count of kidnapping.

Wenner is due in court on June 7th.

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