Wake County mom speaks out about man accused of molesting her child
RALEIGH (WTVD) -- A Wake County mother is speaking out exclusively to ABC11 after the man accused of molesting her son three years ago was hit with more charges.
Shawn Walters of Morrisville was charged Thursday afternoon with 14 counts of first-degree sexual exploitation of a minor.
Court documents in the case show investigators believe he manufactured child pornography using hidden cameras.
The charges are related to the same case in which he was originally charged in 2014 with molesting the 14-year-old son of a friend.
We are not identifying the friend in order to conceal the identity of the child, but Thursday that friend said the investigation began after she asked her son to see his phone so she could check his school assignments.
She says she soon found texts between the boy and Walters filled with graphic sex.
"Things I've never even said to my husband. Things my husband has never even said to me. And we had a 45-year-old man saying this to a 14-year-old. It was shocking," she said.
She then realized it had all started a year earlier when she restarted her career.
"As soon as I went back to work is when Walters kind of homed in on him, started helping him after school, started helping him with homework," she told ABC11.
Thursday's charges came after Walters requested to be able to review the electronic evidence against him according to the victim's mother.
When she and investigators gathered the evidence to hand over to the defense, they found the hidden camera videos.
Walters has been out of jail on a $400,000 bond since not long after the first charges were filed in 2014.
But Thursday afternoon he was sent back to jail on the 14 new charges and his bond was set at $1,500,000.
It's not clear if he can make that bond.
He was in court on Monday when the victim's family expected he might plead guilty.
It didn't happen.
The mother said she was disappointed and added, "I don't understand why he did it because he's looking at a lot more time if he goes to trial with the other charges that are being added."
So now it appears a jury trial may be inevitable.
And the victim's mom says that may be best anyway.
"Honestly I believe that a trial would give my son more closure than just him pleading because the jury would have to look at the evidence and know that he did it," she said.
