A welfare check led Bellevue officers to a cache of child pornography.

Police were asked to do a welfare check on Richard Rowlett, 78, at his home. When police were finally able to contact Rowlett, they could see, in plain sight, many images of children engaged in child sexual abuse.

When they asked Rowlett, he allegedly told them he possessed large quantities of explicit material, both at his home and at a storage facility that he’s been collecting since the 1970s, tens of thousands of images. But Rowlett insisted he never acted on his fantasies, and he’s not a threat to anyone.

Rowlett was immediately placed into custody and booked into the King County Jail on two felony charges.

“One for possession of depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct and another for viewing

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