By Shereen Siewert
A 19-year-old Wausau man arrested after investigators found dozens of explicit images and files of children being abused in his possession will spend three years in prison, court records show.
Alexander Gosse, of Marathon, was charged in December in Marathon County Circuit Court. An investigation began after multiple cyber tips from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that were based on reports from Google and Snapchat identifying suspected child pornography.
Police traced the uploads to Gosse and discovered about 55 suspect files, according to court documents. The images largely involved children who had not yet reached puberty and were captured on video as they were being assaulted, police said.
In an interview, Gosse allegedly told investigators he was part of a group on Snapchat that actively traded child pornography, but said he had since removed himself from the group. Police said Gosse “likened the trading of [child pornography] to trading baseball cards.
Of the 10 counts filed against Gosse, nine were dismissed as part of a plea agreement. During a hearing Wednesday, Circuit Judge Suzanne O’Neill sentenced Gosse to the prison term followed by three years of extended supervision. The judge also ordered Gosse to register as a sex offender for 15 years, write a letter to the victims and pay court costs. He is prohibited from using the internet unless for work or school purposes approved by a corrections agent.
Gosse, who was not in custody at the time of his hearing, was remanded to the Wisconsin Prison System.
NCMEC’s CyberTipline is the nation’s centralized reporting system for the online exploitation of children. Members of the public as well as electronic service providers can make reports of suspected online enticement of children, molestation, sexual abuse material, child sex tourism, trafficking, unsolicited obscene materials sent to a child, misleading domain names, and misleading words or digital images on the internet. NCMEC staff review each tip and work to find a potential location so that it may be made available to the appropriate agency for possible investigation.
