Mother of victim in alleged sexual exploitation case speaks out
HENRY COUNTY, Tenn. — We have continuing coverage on the investigation of a man arrested for allegedly exploiting minors and women online.
After pictures of dozens of local women surface on unauthorized social media accounts, a mother of one of the victims speaks out on their experience.
After a surge of unauthorized use of multiple personal images, 64-year-old Ronald Cummings is arrested and charged with alleged sexual exploitation of a minor.
Micah Hodge, the mother of one of the many victims describes how she felt helpless. “I, as a mother, felt like I was out of control of the situation of protecting my daughter,” said Hodge.
According to the Henry County Sheriff’s Office, a social media post was made and several women’s pictures circulated online. In some of these posts were sexual captions and phrases and some of the pictures included minors. These pictures appear to have been taken from other social media pages.
“I immediately started diving into these Instagram accounts because something in my gut told me she’s on there,” said Hodge.
Hodge recalls the the day things got weird.
“I remember the day that he ‘friend requested’ me and the day that he even said ‘happy birthday’ to me because me and her would share a birthday and he had made a comment about her that day and that was actually the day that they were posted on Instagram,” said Hodge.
Hodge says the internet should be a safe place to post pictures of family and friends.
“We post picture online because we’re proud of our family or we’re proud of ourselves and we post them with the good faith that our friends on Facebook will not use them in a ill manner,” said Hodge.
She shares the initial reaction of how her daughter responded and the traumatic stress she has experienced since.
“Whenever I brought it to her attention she immediately reclused into inner-self and was like: ‘Mom this is scary.’ She even had trouble going to the gas station and pumping gas that day,” said Hodge.
The Henry County Sheriff’s Office says this is an ongoing investigation and more charges are expected. If your pictures have been used or if you have any information about this case, please contact the Henry County Sheriff’s Investigation Division at 731-642-1672.
Cumming’s court date is tomorrow, September 24th.
SEE ALSO: Arrest made after inappropriate content found online involving minor
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