Ex-cop who sought nude pictures of children gets 5 years

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – A former Massachusetts police sergeant who posted ads online asking people to send him nude pictures of their daughters has been sentenced to five years in prison.

Former Attleboro officer Richard Woodhead was sentenced Friday in U.S. District Court in Providence after pleading guilty in August to attempted receipt of child pornography.

Prosecutors say a Rhode Island State Police detective noticed the ads last January and posed as an 8-year-old girl’s guardian in order to engage in email conversations with Woodhead, during which he requested photos and described sexual relations he wanted to have with the child. He had similar telephone conversations with an undercover Homeland Security Investigations agent.

Woodhead’s lawyer called the conversations “lurid sexual fantasies.”

Woodhead retired after police and federal agents raided his home in April.