Follow-Up: Bodkin pleads not guilty to child porn charges

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Castrator to stand trial for child porn

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Edward Lee Bodkin

Posted: Sunday, January 1, 2012 4:00 am

Kevin Taylor - Copy Editor | 0 comments

An Elmore County man, who was known for performing human castrations in Indiana, pleaded not guilty to child pornography charges and his trial is set for early February at the federal courthouse in Montgomery.

Edward Lee Bodkin, 68, of the 8400 block of Holtville Road in the Slapout community was indicted by a federal grand jury in November and was arraigned Dec. 21, according to federal court records.

Bodkin, an American cutter (underground surgical practitioner), faces multiple counts of possessing and receiving child pornography after he was arrested Aug. 12 by members of the Elmore County Sheriff’s Department during the execution of a search warrant.

Investigators and deputies found about 100 VHS video tapes and 500 DVDs containing pornographic material, according to Elmore County Chief Investigator R.T. Ward.

Investigators and deputies also confiscated medical supplies and photographs depicting human castration.

“We learned of him after we were contacted by a representative from the Massachusetts Treatment Center for Sexually Dangerous Persons where one of the inmates was receiving sexually explicit mail from (Bodkin),” Ward told the Herald.

Ward said the letters would refer to child pornography and sadomasochistic acts.

Bodkin was sentenced to four years in jail in 1999 for performing medicine without a license in Indiana.

After being released from jail, Bodkin relocated to Slapout. Ward said he had not asked Bodkin why he had relocated to Alabama at the time of his arrest.

Ward said Bodkin has never been licensed for a medical practice within the state of Alabama, and he has never been convicted as a sex offender.

Huntington County (Ind.) Prosecutor Amy Richison, who was chief deputy prosecutor at the time, said there was no sign of Bodkin’s involvement with child pornography when he was arrested in the late 1990s.

“All of the castrations were done to adult males,” she told the Herald. “None of his patients were underage.”

He later admitted to performing five castrations and even kept “trophies” in jars with dates.

Count one of the indictment alleges Bodkin used the Yahoo Messenger Internet photosharing application to receive child pornography on a desktop computer in August 2010.

The remaining counts in the indictment charge Bodkin with possession of child pornography, which was allegedly stored on an external hard drive and two flash drives, in August 2011.

Other items sheriff’s deputies and investigators confiscated were hundreds of photographs of child pornography and human castrations as well as a contract of conveyance which would allow for such acts to take place, according to Ward.

“And by his own admission he recorded children as young as one month old in sexual acts,” Ward said.

Bodkin’s trial is set for Feb. 6 before Chief U.S. District Judge William Keith Watkins.