Hickory man sentenced on child exploitation charges, Catawba County Justice Center says

HICKORY, N.C. — A Hickory man was sentenced on Tuesday after pleading guilty to three counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, according to the Catawba County Justice Center.

Robert Oliver Parker, 76, of Hickory, received an active sentence of six to 22 years. Parker will serve his time in the custody of the North Carolina Division of Adult Corrections and will have to register as a sex offender for the next 30 years.

In August 2020, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), along with the Department of Homeland Security, got a cyber tip about a person talking to and getting sexually explicit images of minors from someone in the Philippines, the Catawba County Justice Center says.

The report was then sent to the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation (SBI), where they were able to trace the messages to Parker’s email account. Further investigation shows that from 2010 to 2020, Parker got more than 16,000 images from individuals in the Philippines of more than 30 underage girls.

SBI agents reached out to Parker in February 2021 at his home, where he confirmed his relationship with the person from the Philippines. Parker also told agents he had traveled there to have sexual intercourse with the females, which involved filming and taking pictures of the interaction, the Catawba County Justice Center says.

Parker denied that the females were underage and told agents that he sent money to the person in the Philippines on a regular basis in return for photographs.

Agents executed a search warrant at Parker’s home, where they took multiple items containing child sexual abuse material, including videos and emails between Parker and the females where he was asking for photographs.

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