By Jim Hannah
The Cincinnati Enquirer

BURLINGTON - Authorities say a Jessamine County man charged Wednesday afternoon in the sexual assault of a girl at a Walton park may have been operating a file-sharing service for child pornography out of his central Kentucky home.

When police served Terry E. Adkins, 25, of Nicholasville with a search warrant looking for evidence in several related sexual assault cases, officers say they uncovered a computer filled with child pornography.

Authorities say Adkins and his wife had recently purchased the computer to swap child pornography over the Internet much as people exchange music files. A folder on the computer screen was labeled "porno" and contained at least 3,000 images of boys and girls involved in sex acts with adults and with other children, according to court records.

Federal authorities held Adkins and his wife, 32-year-old Jane M. Adkins, without bail last week. Then, on Wednesday, the Boone County Sheriff's Department became the latest state agency to charge Terry Adkins. He is charged with first-degree sexual abuse in connection with a sexual assault of a 6-year-old girl in July at Walton Community Park.

Although Mrs. Adkins was not charged in the Boone County case, she has been implicated with her husband in at least four other sexual assaults across central Kentucky.

Mrs. Adkins told police that her husband forced her to commit sexual acts with children, according to court records. She also said she had downloaded 100 to 200 images of child pornography.

"This arrest is an example of extraordinary cooperation among eight local, state and federal agencies," said Maj. Jack Banks of the Boone County Sheriff's Department. "All the departments involved stayed in close contact. We met with the FBI who set us up with the U.S. Attorney's office."

Georgetown police have filed several charges against the couple for allegedly abusing a 7-year-old girl at the Scott County Library this year.

And on Tuesday, Nicholasville police charged Adkins with first-degree sodomy and kidnapping in connection with the sexual abuse and restraint of a 2-year-old boy.

Police say Virginia may be the next site for an investigation. Adkins once lived in Newport News, and Adkins' mother told a Lexington television station on Tuesday that her son told her he had committed sexual assaults in other states.

Detectives cracked the child sexual abuse case after Adkins was turned in by his mother, who was not identified in court records.

She reported her son after seeing police composite sketches of suspects in the assault cases, including the one from Boone County.

"The sheriff decided we would employ as many deputies as needed and do anything possible to solve this case," said Banks. "Each time the assaults escalated. They were being committed during the day and in public places."

Kathy Miller-Cox, who works with children sexually abused in Northern Kentucky, said an abuser often molests 100 times before he or she is caught. Often these sexual assaults become more daring as time passes.

"Abusers become bored, so they step it up a notch," said Miller-Cox, the sexual abuse treatment director for the Family Nurturing Center in Florence. "They try to get away with more and more."

E-mail jhannah@enquirer.com