A former Palm Beach County Fire Rescue captain has been sentenced to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to charges tied to his possession of child sexual abuse material. William Barbre, 44, will also serve five years of probation and must register as a sex offender once he is released, following an investigation in which deputies linked illegal downloads to him.
According to WPEC, Barbre was accused of possessing more than 300 files of child sexual abuse material before he ultimately entered a guilty plea. The case traces back to an investigation in which deputies linked downloading activity involving child sexual abuse material to an IP address associated with Barbre, according to footage reported by WPEC CBS12.
What Investigators Found Inside the Home
A search warrant was executed at Barbre's home, and 348 downloaded files, including videos, were reviewed, according to 1290 WJNO/iHeart. That discovery led to an initial slate of 30 felony counts of possession or intentional viewing of child sexual performance material, the outlet reported.
The probable cause affidavit from the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office, cited by the same report, states that Barbre admitted to deputies that he viewed the downloaded files, felt “repugnant,” and subsequently deleted them. That admission became central to the case investigators built against him in the months that followed.
Bond, Restrictions and Job Fallout
Following his initial court appearance last year, Barbre was held at the Palm Beach County Jail on a $300,000 bond and ordered to abstain from internet access, social media, computer possession, and contact with minors under 18, per the WPEC CBS12 footage. Palm Beach County Fire Rescue placed him on unpaid administrative leave after his arrest, the station's report noted.
Barbre's case put public trust to the test as a captain faced felony charges connected to child exploitation material.
Charges and Sentence
Barbre's case ended with a guilty plea and a sentence of 10 years in prison and five years of probation, along with sex-offender registration after his release.
Barbre's prosecution arrived amid a broader run of similar cases against South Florida first responders. In June 2025, a 51-year-old Boca Raton firefighter was arrested on similar charges in Miami-Dade County, according to a report from CBS News. That outlet noted that regional Internet Crimes Against Children task forces in Florida use specialized Child Exploitation Tracking System technology to monitor peer-to-peer file-sharing networks and automatically flag IP addresses downloading illegal content — the same kind of digital tracking infrastructure that first pointed deputies toward Barbre's Royal Palm Beach address.
