Local attorney charged in world wide pedophile ring

Local attorney charged in world wide pedophile ring

By Dave Culbreth

CREATED OCT. 11, 2013 - UPDATED: OCT. 12, 2013

CAPE CORAL, Fla. - Investigators from several places around the world say former Cape Coral attorney Rex Powell was the leader of a ring which had a chat room called BoyLover.net which had 70,000 members until it was shut down. The investigation started five years ago but until they arrested all 184 men the court documents were sealed, until Friday.

"He's a man I knew! A lawyer in this city, in this town," says Stuart Pepper, who himself is an attorney in Cape Coral.

Powell was a lawyer based in Southwest Florida from 2007 until he was arrested in late 2011. "He was well respected, had a good clientle, appeared to be an up and coming lawyer," added Pepper.

According to documents obtained by FOX4 from Federal Court in Indianapolis investigators, "recovered videos and stills depicting a boy who was between 22 months old and 5 years old engaged in sex acts with John Rex Powell."

Powell was known in local circles simply as "Rex". The documents go on to say, "there are images and videos of Powell engaged in sexual acts in Florida, California, France and Australia."

Pepper knew Powell and today, for the first time, read the indictment. "When Rex, I guess, joined the group, Rex became the lead person to take the child around the world for other men to have sex with," interpreted Pepper.

Investigators in Australia say the group was two men, married to each other, who bought a baby boy for $8,000 from a woman in Russia. They say the men got him when he was five days old, and started sexually abusing him when he was two weeks old and videotaped many of these acts. "I mean it's unfathomable," exclaimed Pepper. "How do you comprehend something like that?"

The documents go on to say that by the time he was 22 months old the child's sexual awareness, as depicted on video, rivals that of an adult. "They videotaped it," added Pepper. "In fact, Rex was proud of his participation. He was in many videos throughout the world with this boy and other boys."

Powell is one of the three main men. Of the other two, one has already been sentenced to 40 years in prison. FOX4 is told Powell is working on a plea agreement and is set for trial in federal court in Indianapolis later this month. As far as the adopted boy, he now lives with extended relatives in Los Angeles.