Fort Campbell soldier charged with child sexual exploitation

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — A Fort Campbell soldier has been charged with multiple child sexual exploitation offenses after allegedly inappropriately contacting multiple minors for over a year.

A press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Tennessee, citing court documents, alleges 39-year-old Robert Cecilio has been communicating with at least three minor females using the social media app Snapchat “to get the victims to send him nude photos and videos of themselves.”

Records obtained through a search warrant yielded more than 8,400 contacts—messages, images and videos—between Cecilio and one of the victims.

The Clarksville man was arrested by the FBI on Wednesday, though he was detained by Army CID Special Agents and Military Police Officers as he entered Fort Campbell last Friday. The USAO said Cecilio waived his Miranda rights and told officials he used a Snapchat account that had been previously searched by law enforcement as well as other accounts when communicating with minors.

Cecilio allegedly confessed to engaging “in inappropriate sexual communications with many minor girls for an extended period of time” and had received “many images and videos” of minors “that he understood to be child pornography.”

If convicted, Cecilio would face a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in federal prison and a maximum fine of $250,000.