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A married father-of-five has been accused of filming himself molesting children on his Florida Keys houseboat before distributing the horrific footage online.
Eric Cadogan, 39, was already sentenced to 20 years in prison on child pornography charges last month.
On Tuesday, Monroe County Sheriff’s Office announced it arrested Cadogan on multiple child abuse charges which includes incest, sexual assault, child cruelty, contributing to the delinquency of a child and lewd and lascivious behavior on a child.
The probable cause affidavit, first seen by the Miami Herald, details multiple instances of Cadogan allegedly having sexual intercourse with children, encouraging them to engage in sexual acts with each other while filming them on his cell phone.
The alleged crimes all took place on his sailing boat, which since 2019 had been moored in a harbour in Marathon, Middle Keys. His wife, Kia Cadogan, 34, and children lived onboard the boat with him, according to authorities.
Cadogan was arrested in December 2023 for distributing child pornography which included offering to sell a man hundreds of images of minors engaging in sexual behavior across an encrypted app, police said. The man turned out to be an undercover agent.
The explicit images show a male wearing a distinct set of bracelets which matched jewellery found in Cadogan’s bedroom in his property in Wisconsin, according to police.
Cadogan’s wife Kia told FBI agents that she molested a child, leading to her arrest in January and the sherriff’s office opening up an investigation. She also claimed that her husband forced her to sexually abuse the minor, a claim detectives believe to be untrue.
“She was equally a co-conspirator,” Sheriff Rick Ramsay said in a statement. The mom currently sits in county jail on a $550,000 bond as she awaits trial.
“Myself, and the men and women of the Sheriff’s Office are committed to protecting the most vulnerable among us — our children,” Ramsay said.
Cadogan is being held in jail on a bond of $2.2 million and his children taken into custody, authorities said.
“I want to commend the Sheriff’s Office Major Crimes Detectives and our law enforcement partners who worked to ensure these two suspects were brought to justice,” he added.
