SEATTLE — A 57-year-old registered sex offender with a “decades-long history of sexually assaulting children, having graphic sexual images of children, and other felony crimes” has been charged for new alleged crimes against children.
Seattle Police Department’s Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) said it had been investigating Richard Eugene Jackson since last summer.
He was released from DOC custody on March 5, 2025.
Jackson is believed to have possessed, distributed and solicited child sexual abuse material, according to police and court records.
“We got 18 cybertips over a short period of time accusing him of possessing and distributing child sexual abuse material,” Sgt. Shawn Martinell said. “This was an urgent case for us. With his history and his sex offender status he has been identified as somebody likely to reoffend.”
He has previously served time in state prison and at the Special Commitment Center on McNeil Island, where he was designated as a “Sexual Violent Offender,” according to court documents.
When detectives got approved for a warrant for his devices, they allegedly found images and videos of child sexual abuse materials, according to first appearance court documents.
Those documents allege that Jackson had a 48-minute-long video involving a preteen, and another short video involving a girl around the age of 4 or 5.
Investigators say they found chats where Jackson allegedly said he would pay for child sex abuse materials, and there were alleged screenshots of gift cards and BitCoin transactions.
According to court documents, Jackson also allegedly would take photos of children in public (unbeknownst to them) and masturbate in his car.
He was arrested on Jan. 29 and booked into King County Jail.
On Feb. 2, he was charged with:
- First-degree dealing in depictions of minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct
- Two counts of first-degree possession of depictions of minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct
He remains held on $750,000 bail requested by King County Prosecutors at his first appearance.
Jackson is a Level III registered sex offender who was living in the International District before his arrest.
According to court documents, the Department of Corrections provided SPD investigators with a “16-page document tittled ‘Notification of Sex Offender Release by DSHS (Department of Social and Health Services)” detailing past violations and time served.
Some of those prior offenses included convictions for raping a preteen and a 7-year-old boy in the 80s and for leaving sexually explicit notes at a few elementary schools in 1995 in hopes of getting boys to call him for sexual contact, according to his sex offender listing.
His first conviction listed on his sex offender registry for possession of child sex abuse material was in 2006. This happened to be when he was already being held on McNeil Island.
He is set to be arraigned on Feb. 5.