The Marion County Sheriff’s Office arrested an 80-year-old Ocala man on 20 counts of child pornography-related charges after receiving a report that he was engaging with young children in online conversations that were sexual in nature.
On Monday afternoon, an MCSO deputy made contact with Clifford Haglund who confirmed that he had been chatting with young boys online. He also admitted that he had inappropriate images of children saved on his iPad, according to a media release from the sheriff’s office.
MCSO stated that Haglund led the deputy to his residence, which is located in Rolling Greens Village in the 6000 block of La Costa Drive in Ocala. Upon arrival at the home, Haglund retrieved his iPad and showed the deputy the images of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) that were stored on the device.
Haglund was transported to the MCSO Operations Center for an interview. According to MCSO, Haglund admitted that around a year ago he began meeting young boys on Omegle, which is a website that randomly connects strangers so they can video chat anonymously.
During the interview, Haglund told investigators that he often observed young boys on the website performing sexually explicit acts. He advised that he attempted to create a relationship with those boys by exchanging contact information with them, according to MCSO.
An MCSO senior digital forensic technician obtained permission from Haglund and examined his iPad. The sheriff’s office stated that numerous files containing child pornography were found on the device. When asked about those files, Haglund told investigators that he found the videos online, and he further described the steps that he took to save the videos on his iPad.
MCSO discovered during the investigation that Haglund was the suspect in another case involving two files of CSAM that had been uploaded to a social media platform and transmitted to another user. The sheriff’s office stated that a detective confirmed that the two files were uploaded from Haglund’s home address and that he was the sole user of the social media account.
Haglund was arrested on Tuesday and transported to Marion County Jail where he is currently being held on $100,000 bond. He is facing felony charges for possession of child pornography (18 counts) and transmission of child pornography (two counts).
A court date has been scheduled at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, April 25, according to jail records.
The Marion County Sheriff’s Office believes that Haglund may have victimized children due to his inappropriate online contact with juveniles, his efforts to obtain their contact information, and the nature of his offenses. MCSO encourages anyone who believes they may have been victimized by Haglund to contact Detective King at 352-368-3586.