ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. – A 19-year-old University of North Florida student who was arrested on child pornography charges admitted during an interview with detectives to the sexual exploitation a 4-year-old child, according to a St. Johns County Sheriff's Office unredcated arrest report.
Neal Douglas Buckles of Ponte Vedra Beach is charged with two counts of possession of child pornography and one count of transmitting child pornography.
SJCSO Cmdr. Chuck Mulligan confirmed to News4Jax Monday that they have identified the 4-year-old boy, who did not go to the church and was not a part of the church's day care facility where Buckles worked.
The Sheriff's Office is investigating where the possible offense occurred, Mulligan said.
Mulligan said they've received several calls from people who had general concerns, but nothing from the calls has led to a new criminal investigation.
According to the unredacted arrest report obtained Monday by News4Jax, deputies received a cyber tip in August from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which was initiated by Google. The tip said that two images were uploaded to Buckles' email address, the report said.
The first image showed nude boys involved in a sex act, one of them between 6 and 8 years old and the other 8 to 10 years old, investigators said.
Detectives said the second image involved three young boys, two of whom were naked and one wearing only underwear. Deputies said they believe that the oldest child could not have been more than 10 years old.
Buckles, who is described as being 5 feet 8 inches tall and 350 pounds, was taken into custody Thursday morning on the UNF campus and was taken in for questioning, according to the arrest report.
Buckles admitted to investigators that he had shared the images with an "out-of-state associate," the arrest report said.
According to Buckles' Facebook page, he is majoring in child psychology and secondary education at UNF, and he had solicited babysitting services on Facebook.
News4Jax also learned that Buckles worked at Church of Eleven22 on Beach Boulevard in Jacksonville as a part-time child care provider.
Buckles' father, who is an elder at The Church of Eleven22, will be stepping down from his duties as an Elder Board member so he can "devote his full attention to the needs of his family," the church said in a statement released Friday.
Residents in Buckles' Ponte Vedra Beach neighborhood told News4Jax Monday that he only interacted with children through his work at the church and they did not feel that he posed a threat to children in the neighborhood.
Neighbors said Buckles is the son of a prominent local businessman and described the 19-year-old's arrest as "disturbing" and "very unfortunate for all."
A judge ordered Friday that Buckles have no unsupervised contact with children and banned him from using the internet as a conditions of his bond.
Buckles bonded out of of the St. Johns County Jail just before noon Friday.