Arrested for sexual battery on a child, investigation indicates he was allegedly going to the dark web to access child porn
By WILLIAM SNOWDEN
Editor
It appears former Wakulla deputy Kenneth Malphurs may be the subject of ongoing investigation dealing with him accessing child porn on the dark web. That conclusion is based on The Wakulla Sun going through the criminal investigation file on Malphurs current charges of lewd and lasicivous sexual assault on a child younger than 12.
Malphurs was arrested on the lewd and lasicivious charge a month ago and has been held without bond. (He is housed in the Franklin County Jail because of his connection to the Wakulla County Sheriff’s Office.) Malphurs was a former School Resource Officer and was transferred to corrections when the sexual assault investigation was opened. He was suspended by the sheriff’s office when the case was being investigated and later fired by the sheriff’s office after his arrest.
The Sun obtained the criminal investigation file through a public records request. The information is heavily redacted to protect the victim in the case.
But reading through the documents it becomes apparent that detectives in the Criminal Investigation Division used a company called CyberCheck to backtrack and “carve out” where Malphurs went on the internet and the so-called “dark web.”
In its report in March 2022, CyberCheck said there were “19 folders displaying dark web content carved from Kenneth Malphurs’ online activity… The folder contained extreme images/video content including but not limited to child pornography, body mutilation, bestiality, murder, rape, torture, bondage, festish, (and) various rope tying techniques.”
There were 159 child porn images, according to the report. The estimated age of the children in the images is as young as 3.
The report also indicated that Malphurs was accessing such data from the his home, the sheriff’s office, adjacent to the sheriff’s office annex, and at Wakulla Middle School when he was a school resource officer.
A rating of the severity of the child porn images ranked Malphurs’ as High, based on sadistic/bestiality pictures showing a child being tied, bound, beaten, whipped or otherwise subject to something that implies pain.”
It would appear that the child porn information is included in the criminal investigation on the sexual assault of the child as it bolsters the case of his deviant sexual interest in children.
Images also accessed by Malphurs, according to the report, included videos of dogs being tortured.
The sheriff’s office does not comment on ongoing investigations.
But Detective Ashley Hudson in testimony in open court at a bail hearing for Malphurs testified that there is another open investigation involving Malphurs.
Malphurs is being held without bond. Because of his connection to Wakulla law enforcement, he is in the Franklin County Jail.
