Skip to Content

Columbia man charged with statutory rape, multiple child-porn charges

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A Columbia man has been accused of rape and multiple child pornography charges.

William Lee Nichols, 51, is charged with second-degree statutory rape, second-degree statutory sodomy, possession of child pornography and promoting child pornography. He is being held without bond at the Boone County Jail. An arraignment was held Friday.

The probable cause statement says Nichols started having sex with a girl in 2019 and that it went on until the girl turned 16 in 2021. Some of the incidents involved sex toys, which were found Thursday after a search warrant was executed at his residence. The probable cause statement claims he sent nude images of himself to the victim and also made her send him nude photos via email.

The Boone County Sheriff’s Office Cyber Crimes Task Force received a report from the National Center for Missouri and Exploited Children on Nov. 3, 2022. The complaint was sent from Yahoo, claiming that on Aug. 2, a user sent four images of nude children younger than 12 years old to another Yahoo user.

The account was allegedly belonged to Nichols. When a search warrant was executed on March 16, he allegedly admitted to being associated with the Yahoo email address associated with the report, the probable cause statement says.

Article Topic Follows: Crime

Jump to comments ↓

Ryan Shiner

BE PART OF THE CONVERSATION

ABC 17 News is committed to providing a forum for civil and constructive conversation.

Please keep your comments respectful and relevant. You can review our Community Guidelines by clicking here

If you would like to share a story idea, please submit it here.

Skip to content