Convicted molester charged with possessing child pornography

A convicted child molester accused of sharing thousands of violent child-sex images and videos online was charged Friday with five counts of possessing depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

John Richard Cothern, a 43-year-old who has served state and federal prison time for child-sex crimes, was booked into King County Jail on Tuesday after an investigation by Seattle police and the FBI.

For the past several years, Cothern has lived about a block from St. Anne School on Queen Anne Hill, police said.

Senior Deputy Prosecutor Cecelia Gregson said Cothern is also suspected of sexually assaulting children. However, he was not charged Friday with assault.

"He has admitted to having seven live, unidentified children that he sexually assaulted," Gregson said. "It appears one was when he was under the age of 18 and the rest since he has been an adult."

Gregson said that Seattle police Detective Ian Polhemus is talking to people who know Cothern in an attempt to confirm whether there are any sexual-assault victims.

"It's incredibly worrisome, you have a registered sex offender who has so many images of child pornography," Gregson said. "The detective said this is some of the worst child pornography he has seen."

Gregson is asking a judge to order Cothern held on $750,000 bail.

Cothern was convicted of first-degree child molestation in Yakima in 1997 and three counts of mailing depictions of child pornography in U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Washington in October 2001. He pleaded guilty in both cases; he is not on probation.

According to charging documents, an undercover FBI agent in New York first learned of Cothern in June 2009 during an investigation into online child pornography. Cothern is accused of sharing files through the user names "Weepint," "underlover1" and "underlover6," charging paperwork said.

Through a subpoena, authorities learned of Cothern's identity and his address on Queen Anne, charging papers said.

On Monday, Polhemus talked to Cothern and searched his home.

While Cothern told the detective that he had been spending about 10 hours each week viewing child pornography, he "denied any current or recent hands-on offenses of children," charges said. Computer analysts are looking at Cothern's laptop and two hard drives.

If convicted on the five counts, Cothern faces more than eight years in prison, prosecutor said.

Jennifer Sullivan: 206-464-8294 or jensullivan@seattletimes.com