Disney worker held in child-porn case

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It seems these days, you have to be very careful no matter where you take your family.

Disney worker held in child-porn case

Walter Pacheco and Willoughby Mariano | Sentinel Staff Writers
Posted February 9, 2007, 7:09 AM EST

A Walt Disney World cast member who plays the Beast from Beauty and the Beast and sometimes dresses as Goofy was arrested Thursday on 51 felony counts of child pornography.

Orange County deputies arrested Matthew Wendland, 20, after receiving a tip from his roommates who had witnessed photographs of children in sexual poses or acts in Wendland's bedroom.

Disney spokeswoman Kim Prunty said today that Wendland "has been suspended without pay pending the outcome of the charges." Wendland has worked for Disney for about seven months.

Deputies approached Wendland, who was dressed as the Beast at Walt Disney World, and he agreed to accompany them to his home.

A search revealed he possessed about a dozen printed computer pictures of children under 10 performing sex acts and more than 1,000 pornographic images involving children on a CD-ROM disk in an unzipped briefcase located in his bedroom closet, according to records.

Additional hard drives retrieved during the search also will be checked, and pictures where the ages of the children are unclear will be reviewed by a physician to determine their ages.

Sex crimes division Sgt. Richard Mankewich does not think Wendland attacked children.

"We interviewed him, and I don't believe he acted out on his fantasies at all," Mankewich said.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/orange/orl-bk-disney02092007,0,4761222.story?track=rss
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bulldogg said:
Surprised this story wasn't supressed like others I've read about.
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Maybe it will be but I live close to WDW so, I hear about them all too frequently. I think the last one before this was the story about the Tigger character supposedly assaulting a 14 y/o boy. And before that, there was the Mickey guy who was charged with inappropriate touching of a young woman.
 
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