Madison County man charged with 5 counts of sexual exploitation of a child

A Madison County man has been charged in Athens-Clarke County with Computer or Electronic Pornography and Child Exploitation by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s Child Exploitation and Computer Crimes (CEACC) Unit.

According to GBI investigators on Tuesday, November 11, 2020, 42-year old Richard Nathanial Wood, was arrested in Madison County after information was received by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

The case was worked together by the Athens Office of the FBI and the GBI’s CEACC Unit.

Their investigation determined Wood had been having graphic sexual conversations with children online and that ultimately led to Wood’s arrest.

Wood was booked into the Athens-Clarke County Jail.

He was charged with five counts of Sexual Exploitation of a Child and Computer or Electronic Pornography.

His arrest is part of the ongoing effort by the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, housed within the GBI’s Child Exploitation and Computer Crimes Unit, to identify those involved in the child pornography trade.

Last week, a former law enforcement office in Forsyth County was arrested by the same task force on similar charges.

The ICAC Program, created by the U.S. Department of Justice, was developed in response to the increasing number of children and teenagers using the internet, the proliferation of child pornography, and the heightened online activity by predators searching for unsupervised contact with underage victims.

Anyone with information about this case or other cases of child exploitation is asked to contact the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Child Exploitation and Computer Crimes Unit at 404-270-8870.