Crime & Safety
Former Bowie Teacher Sexted Child, Kept Child Porn Indicted: Prosecutor
A former teacher from Bowie who prosecutors said was sexting a 9-year-old former student and had child porn in his home has been indicted.
BOWIE, MD — A 44-year-old Bowie man and elementary school teacher has been indicted in connection to the coercion and enticement of a child who was his student and for possessing child pornography.
According to the indictment, from about June 19 to June 25, Mark Edward Cobb enticed and coerced a child victim to engage in sexual activity. He also possessed sexually explicit images involving a prepubescent minor and a minor victim younger than 12 years old
On Aug. 25, Child and Vulnerable Adult Abuse Unit detectives were notified that Cobb was texting a former student who is younger than 10 years old, police said. Cobb taught at Cooper Lane Elementary School in Landover Hills.
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Investigators said Cobb was texting the victim between June 2023 and August 2024. Cobb asked for and received sexually inappropriate photos of the victim.
Detectives who executed a search warrant seized evidence from Cobb's home that led to him being charged with the sexual abuse of a minor, nine counts of possession of child pornography and child pornography promote-distribute with intent to possess.
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“I just can’t imagine how sick a person has to be to have this type of conversation, a very sexually explicit conversation, with a 9-year-old ... it’s outrageous," Prince George's County State's Attorney Aisha Braveboy said during a press conference. "The facts of every case are heartbreaking. This one is beyond what anyone could imagine, but our job is to get justice and that’s what we’re going to do. These are individuals who are in positions of trust, so she had a right to trust her teacher. Those teachers and those who are preying upon children, they are grooming children for their own, personal, sick desires."
If convicted, Cobb faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in federal prison and up to life in federal prison for coercion and enticement of a child and a maximum of 10 years in federal prison for possession of child pornography.
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