WPD officer caught trading child porn, stalking fellow cop on Instagram pleads guilty

A Wichita cop caught trading pornographic images of children and talking about his sexual interest in preteen girls on Instagram pleaded guilty on Thursday to two counts of attempted sexual exploitation of a child, court records show. The charges are felonies.

Authorities investigating an account created by Wichita police Officer Thomas R. Wallace on the social media platform discovered a number of sexual conversations where Wallace would “ask for and exchange nude photos and videos” and expressed “desires to have sex with young females,” according to an arrest affidavit released in the case.

In one chat, Wallace responded “So do I” to an Instagram user who said he wanted to have sex with “younger girls,” his arrest affidavit says.

In another summarized in the document, he said his age preferences for girls was “young” and “Like 11+,” his arrest affidavit says.

Wallace also shared explicit images from his account depicting nude underage girls and asked other users to send him “photos or videos,” the affidavit says.

Wallace, 30, was also facing a misdemeanor stalking charge for allegedly harassing a fellow WPD officer with another Instagram account. He also entered a guilty plea in that case Thursday, Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett said by email.

Wallace had been with the Wichita Police Department for five years at the time of his February 2021 arrest. He is set for sentencing Sept. 26 in both cases, Bennett said.