OSAGE – On Monday, a convicted sex offender was released from federal prison to live in Osage.
William Collins will be living at 527 Walnut Street in Osage.
Collins is not, at this time, on the Iowa Sex Offender list, because all his crimes were prosecuted at the federal level. Osage police today confirmed that they are “working hard” in conjunction with other agencies to have Collins placed on the Iowa sex offender list. Also, it was confirmed that at this time, residency requirements do not pertain to Williams. A source indicated that Williams’ new place of residency is “less than 200 feet from Lincoln Elementary School, and within 50 feet of a daycare.”
According to a source, Collins was convicted April 30th, 2006 for receipt of child pornography in federal court. Records show that numerous charges at about the same time were dismissed in state court, including several counts of burglary, possession of medium depicting child pornography, sexual abuse in the third degree, and more.
The source further said that “The crimes terrified the community for over a year, eventually, his crimes escalated. When he was arrested, they found hundreds of pairs of women’s underwear as well as a large quantity of pornography featuring very young children.”
Sheriff Greg Beaver told NIT today that there are some restrictions on Williams, but nothing so far to prevent him from living in close proximity to a school. However, Sheriff Beaver did indicate that loitering near the school could pose a problem for Williams. “If he were to, say, be on his sidewalk in front of his home, engaging children in conversation, perhaps to gain some kind of relationship with them, that would be loitering,” the sheriff explained.
