HERNANDO COUNTY, Fla. — The Hernando County Sheriff’s Office arrested a man deputies say forced at least eight children, in multiple cities between central and northeast Florida, into child porn, including kids in Jacksonville.
The youngest was three years old. The oldest was ten.
Hernando County Sheriff Al Nienhuis announced on Friday that Nathan Holmberg is facing almost a dozen charges, including child cruelty, child abuse, and sexual battery of a child under 12 years old, among other charges. The sheriff said during a news briefing that someone, not yet being identified, tipped Hernando County deputies after claiming to have seen ‘sex acts’ on Holmberg’s phone involving a young child.
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Sheriff Nienhuis said Holmberg had initially been arrested for driving with a suspended license, but searched Holmberg’s home in Hernando County and found not only his phone, but 30 other electronic devices also believed to have child porn saved on them.
“What we found on that cell phone is 650 pictures or videos. About 100 of those are videos of child sexual abuse material,” said Sheriff Nienhuis.
The Hernando County sheriff said deputies have spent the last week and a half scouring the photos and videos on the phone to identify the children they say were shown in them. He believes it will take months to go through whatever material may be on Holmberg’s 30 other devices.
“We asked him if he had any child pornography downloaded on his phone. He said, ‘No, I make my own,’” Sheriff Nienhuis said.
Action News Jax found that Holmberg’s history of child sex crimes in Jacksonville dates back to at least 2012. An arrest report from the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office says Holmberg forced a young student whom he nannied to have sex with him, which he pleaded guilty to later that year. He was sentenced to five years of probation, which Duval County court records show was violated four times.
We learned that Holmberg lived in a neighborhood on Jacksonville’s Southside that same year, before moving into the Bartram Springs neighborhood, where he lived until 2015, before leaving Duval County.
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Sheriff Nienhuis said Hernando County deputies discovered Holmberg has worked in the past as a babysitter, nanny, substitute teacher, youth sports coach and a volunteer at multiple churches. Deputies believe he may have used these jobs to commit sex crimes and create child porn, but the sheriff said it may take years until investigators are able to have all of the answers.
“It makes you sick to your stomach. It makes you want to cry for these victims. And it certainly enrages you,” said Sheriff Nienhuis.
The sheriff said there is now a task force of nine detectives from law enforcement agencies across Florida that are dedicated to finding any other child victims involved in this case.
“I know we’re going to find between 1 and 10 more victims, maybe more,” Sheriff Nienhuis said, “we want to get them the help and get them interviewed.”
Holmberg, at the very least, faces life in prison if he is found guilty of any of the crimes he’s been charged with. He’s set to go before a Hernando County judge on November 18th.
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