FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A Broward County man appeared in Fort Lauderdale federal court on Monday after being accused of conspiring with a South Carolina judge to view and share child sexual abuse videos.
The arrest of John Badger Thorpe came a little less than two months after the arrest of his alleged accomplice, Charleston County Magistrate James Benjamin Gosnell Jr., by federal agents in the Palmetto State.
A federal criminal complaint states that Thorpe, 56, of Wilton Manors, began communicating with Gosnell, 68, of Charleston, South Carolina, on the messaging app Telegram in December 2023 and shared illicit material.
A grand jury indictment from Charleston federal court states that Gosnell came to South Florida to meet with Thorpe and brought child sexual abuse material on a USB drive. Authorities said the two viewed the disturbing content, which included “depictions of infants and toddlers being raped and tortured,” together.
Prosecutors said Gosnell left the USB drive in South Florida and Thorpe eventually shipped it back to South Carolina through FedEx. The two “also discussed future plans to meet with other pedophiles to rape and torture a prepubescent minor,” they said.
A court filing in Gosnell’s case, in which prosecutors successfully sought to deny him bond, doesn’t directly name Thorpe but does reference a trip to Florida to meet an “individual” and states that “It appears from the unimaginably explicit conversations that Gosnell was romantically involved with the other individual (and) their romantic interests involved abusing children together.”
It additionally states that the two “formed plans for Gosnell to travel to Florida in November to rape and potentially murder a very young child.”
Thorpe is scheduled to again appear in Fort Lauderdale federal court on Friday for a removal hearing; his case is being prosecuted together with Gosnell’s in Charleston federal court. Both face several felony charges.
As of Tuesday, Thorpe remained in the Broward Sheriff’s Office Main Jail, where he was being held on behalf of the U.S. Marshals Service.
Media outlets in South Carolina report that Gosnell has pleaded not guilty in the case.
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