Couple Faces Child Pornography Charges

  • May 1, 2019

A DeSoto County couple was arrested last week on child pornography charges, an arrest made public Wednesday afternoon by the DeSoto County Sheriff’s Department.

DeSoto County Sheriff’s Department detectives, on Thursday, April 25, arrested Gerald Nathaniel Whitaker, age 43 of Southaven as part of an ongoing Internet Crimes Against Children investigation.

Whitaker was charged with three counts of exploitation of children, including receiving, possession, and distribution of child pornography. Monday, April 29, Whitaker’s wife Georgette, age 35 also of Southaven, was arrested and charged with exploitation of children.

A news release from the Sheriff’s Department stated that numerous devices of electronic and storage containing child pornography was recovered in the Whitakers’ home.

According to the Sheriff’s Department, Gerald Whitaker admitted to detectives that he has been collecting child pornography for the past 20 years and has been downloading, as he told investigators, “millions” of files with sexually explicit images and videos of children between the ages of seven and 14.

Georgette Whitaker also confessed to downloading and distributing child pornography during her five-year marriage to Gerald. The Whitakers are each being held on a $300,000 bond in the DeSoto County Adult Detention Center in Hernando. Jail information had not indicated a court date for either person as of Wednesday evening.

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