Matt Agorist | The Free Thought Project
North Adams, MA — Less than one year after being given back access to the internet for his previous conviction of distributing child pornography, former Adams Police Officer Alan C. Vigiard downloaded and shared images of young children being sexually exploited.
Last week, Vigiard was ordered to serve 10-12 years in prison after pleading guilty to charges related to child pornography — again.
In 2009, Vigiard was suspended after allegations surfaced that he’d been viewing and distributing child pornography — while on duty, at the police station — for hours every day. Before he was suspended, Vigiard was the Child Exploitation Officer in charge of helping children who were victims of the very crimes he was committing.
Vigiard was busted in 2009 when he sent in CDs to the Berkshire District Attorney’s Office that he thought contained photographic evidence of a larceny investigation. Instead of larceny evidence, however, the CDs contained more than 150 photos of children engaged in sexual activity.
The CD also contained images of a man, later identified as Vigiard, masturbating in the evidence room — most likely to images of victims related to his job.
In 2011, Vigiard was sentenced to a single year in prison for his conviction of child pornography possession, and he was released in July, 2012. As part of his probation, Vigiard was barred from accessing the internet.
However, in October, according to the Berkshire Eagle, State Police detectives received a tip that a pornographic image of a girl, approximately 12 to 14 years old had been uploaded to a chat room on chatstep.com on May 27, 2016. Police traced the image to Vigiard’s home computer.
In spite of his internet ban, Vigiard admitted to prosecutors that he had gotten depressed and was able to access the internet again to view child porn.
After his second arrest, investigators discovered that this supposedly rehabilitated child predator had been downloading and uploading images of child pornography for months.
According to the district attorney’s office, Vigiard’s conviction is the result of actions that occurred on May 27 and Nov. 2. His arrest was the result of an investigation by state police detectives assigned to Capeless’ office and the Adams Police Department, as reported by MassLive.
It is important not to dismiss the fact that Vigiard’s job, while he was a police officer, was to ostensibly ‘protect and help’ children who’d been sexually abused. The idea that a child predator was allowed to get a job so closely related to children should shock the conscience.
It is, in fact, entirely likely that Vigiard sought this position out because of his addiction to looking at these horrid images. What better place for a predator to find prey than in a trusted position of authority.
Of course, the apologists will write this instance off as an isolated one. However, nothing could be further from the truth.
Police officers having sex with, or otherwise exploiting underage victims is, unfortunately, a fairly common practice.
Police sexual misconduct is so common that more than 1,000 officers have had their licenses revoked in just the last six years for it — nearly half of them involve underage victims.
According to the report, around 1,000 policemen across the US had their licenses revoked and lost their jobs over the last six years on account of numerous sexual offenses that included rape and possession of child pornography.
The probe involved examining records from 41 states to see how many police officers’ licenses were revoked in 2009-2014 and for which offenses. Police desertification data was not provided by nine states and the District of Columbia. The investigation included examining the records of state and local police, sheriff’s deputies, prison guards and school resource officers. However, no federal officers were included in the investigation, meaning that number is likely higher.
Vigiard is just another drop in the sicko bucket.
Perhaps when a police officer is in such a sensitive position, it might be a good idea to monitor what he does at work while online. Vigiard was allowed to traverse the child porn universe from the comfort and safety of the police department, from one to six hours daily — all on the taxpayer’s dime.
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