Man once featured on "To Catch a Predator" facing child porn charges

3-2-2012 Virginia:

A Chesterfield man is facing child pornography charges again.

Investigators with the Bedford County Sheriff's Office and Richmond City Police Department have arrested Harold Higley.

He's been charged with four felonies in connection to an online investigation involving sexual exploitation of children.

Higley was featured on "To Catch a Predator" in 2005. However, Higley was not charged in that incident.

In the most recent investigation that began in November 2011, police say Higley was visiting online chat rooms looking for children. Once in there, police say, Higley was trying to solicit sexual conversations and pictures.

Here is the news release from the Bedford County Sheriff's Office:

On Wednesday, Feb 29, 2012, investigators with the Bedford County Sheriff's Office and the Richmond City Police Department, both members of the Southern Virginia Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, and detectives with the Chesterfield County Police, arrested Harold Austin Higley of Chesterfield, in connection with an investigation involving the online sexual exploitation of children.

An ICAC investigator with the Bedford County Sheriff's office, the head agency of the Southern Virginia ICAC Task Force, began investigating Higley's online activity involving children, in November 2011. Higley was visiting online chat rooms looking for minor children, to engage in sexually explicit conversations, and to solicit pictures.

Once Higley was identified, Investigators obtained and then executed a search warrant for Higley's residence to seize evidence related to the investigation. They also discovered Higley may have multiple victims. Higley was subsequently arrested on four felony charges of using a communications device to facilitate certain offense involving children, in violation of Virginia statute 18.2-374.3. Additional charges may be forthcoming, once seized evidence is examined.

Additional information developed during the investigation also shows that in 2005, Higley traveled to an undisclosed location to meet what he thought was an underage girl he had met online, but what turned out to be an undercover investigation being documented by a national news broadcaster, on a then popular series involving child predators. Higley was apparently not charged in connection with that incident.

Higley is currently being held without bond. ..Source.. by WDBJ7 Web Staff