An Aspen man who admitted to having sexual fantasies about children was arrested Saturday for possession and distribution of child pornography, according to court documents.
In addition, Blair Gibsone, 48, told a female acquaintance on social media that he molested and raped a young girl he frequently babysits, then sent the woman a picture of the girl sitting at a local Aspen restaurant, according to a search warrant affidavit filed in Pitkin County District Court.
The rape claim appeared to be an elaborate fantasy, however, because Gibsone later told police he’s never done any babysitting and didn’t know the identity of the girl at the downtown Aspen restaurant, the document states.
Gibsone, a New Zealand resident, did admit to viewing child pornography on his cellphone and a tablet, though, and was charged with felony exploitation of a child and felony possession of child pornography. Police seized a tablet, a laptop, two cellphones, an external hard drive, three flash drives and two cameras from his Aspen apartment, according to the search warrant.
The situation first came to the attention of Aspen police June 17, when a woman walked into the Police Department on Main Street “visibly upset and crying,” according to the affidavit. She said a male told her he was aroused by and attracted to a young girl, though she refused to give her name or the man’s name.
The next day, police were able to identify the woman after she began asking a Pitkin County sheriff’s deputy at the Pitkin County Courthouse about pedophiles. Two police officers met with the woman at her home and she identified Gibsone as the perpetrator and said he told her he’s a close friend of the mother of the young girl he babysits, the affidavit states.
On Wednesday, the woman agreed to contact Gibsone on Facebook in the presence of an Aspen police detective. The two chatted on the social media site from about 9 p.m. Wednesday until about 3:30 a.m. Thursday, according to the affidavit.
During that conversation, Gibsone said he’d been taking care of the girl, who he named, for about two years and that, “Honestly, I’d rather she do it with me so she is safe,” the court document states.
“I love them way more than adults,” Gibsone wrote to the woman on Facebook. “Yes she wanted to do it and I never forced her. I let her do whatever she wanted only if she liked it and wanted to.”
Gibsone admitted to digitally and orally penetrating the girl, according to the affidavit.
“The Facebook chat also contained admissions from Mr. Gibsone that he had done similar things involving sexual contact to other children,” the document states.
Gibsone included pictures of two naked female children and one naked male child in the Facebook chats to the woman, according to the affidavit.
After searching Gibsone’s apartment, Aspen police Detective Adriano Minniti interviewed Gibsone, who told the detective he was “indeed having fantasies about children of a sexual nature” and had watched child pornography, the affidavit states.
After Gibsone said he has never done any babysitting and didn’t know the girl in the Aspen restaurant picture, he told police he was drunk during the Facebook chat with the woman.
He said “he was so intoxicated that he does not recall having them,” according to the affidavit.
Gibsone, who works at a local restaurant, was booked into jail Saturday and later posted bond and was released.