Knoxville Police Department officers arrested 38-year-old Christopher Nelson on Wednesday evening following a grand jury indictment on charges of aggravated rape of a child and sexual battery. Detectives allege Nelson abused an eight-year-old child at least twice, according to the Knoxville Police Department.
Nelson was indicted on two counts of aggravated rape of a child and two counts of sexual battery, according to WVLT. He was taken into custody without incident Wednesday evening, per the Knoxville Police Department, and is now being held at the Roger D. Wilson Detention Facility on a $350,000 bond. The Maloneyville Road facility has a rated capacity of 1,036 inmates, according to the Knox County Sheriff's Office.
Child Abuse Investigation
Information about child advocacy centers accompanies the case. The Childhelp Children's Center of East Tennessee has operated in Knoxville since 1995 as an accredited multi-disciplinary child advocacy center, where law enforcement, child protective services and prosecutors conduct joint investigations and medical evaluations, according to Childhelp.
That model is designed to spare young victims from repeating their accounts across multiple agencies. A 2022 report said 72 percent of cases involved sexual abuse and counted 999 sexual-abuse survivors through Nov. 30, 2022, per a report from WBIR.
What Nelson Faces Under Tennessee Law
Under Tennessee Code § 39-13-531, aggravated rape of a child involving a victim eight years of age or younger is a Class A felony punishable for adult offenders by either the death penalty or imprisonment for life without the possibility of parole, according to Justia Law. The sexual battery counts are also part of the indictment.
Tennessee maintains a Sex Offender Registry through the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, according to the State of Tennessee.
A Dedicated Unit Handles Knox County's Child Abuse Cases
The same WBIR report mentions the district attorney and perpetrators being put behind bars.
Nelson's case involves alleged child sex crimes. It is not yet known when Nelson will be formally arraigned or whether he has retained legal counsel.
