gulf shores: Opp man charged as child predator

By Special to the Star-News
Friday, June 9, 2006 8:19 PM CDT



The Opp Police arrested a resident of the Country Estates Trailer Court in Opp on the charges of soliciting a child for sexual purposes by computer and transmission of obscene material to a child by computer on Tuesday afternoon as the result of a multi-agency investigation.

Winston Leroy Henley, 35, was taken into custody Tuesday at the request of the Gulf Shores Police Department for outstanding secret grand jury warrants.

The Gulf Shores Police Department in cooperation with the Baldwin County District Attorney?s Office and the Mobile F. B. I. concluded the two month internet child predator investigation, code named ?Operation Child Safe,? in which undercover police officers posed as 13-and 14-year-old children on the Internet.

As the result of the operation, 23 individuals have been indicted by a Baldwin County Grand Jury for soliciting a child for sexual purposes by computer and/or for the transmission of obscene material to a child by computer.

At least 12 of the individuals indicted came to the city of Gulf Shores to meet with the person they believed to be a 13-and 14-year-old child and who were contacted by the suspects for the purpose of committing sexual acts with what they believed to be children. Upon their arrival, they were greeted by the undercover officers.

Arrests were also made in Summerdale, Tallassee, Foley, Tuscaloosa, Eight Mile, Camden, Gulf Shores, Robertsdale, Fairhope, Mobile, Birmingham, Jemison and Dothan as well as McDonough, Ga., Thibodaux, La., and Pensacola, Fla.



Cpl. Green thanked the Opp Police Department investigators Nicky Carnley, Junior Anderson and Mark Kyser, along with officers Phillip Joyner and Jeramy Jones for their assistance in making the Henley arrest.

Henley was taken to the Covington County Jail where he remains on hold for the Baldwin County authorities.