We salute the actions of the Covington police department for their efforts in making sure another pervert does not bring harm to another youngster in our community.

Police officials recently arrested Martin Friedman, also known as “Starmaker Mitch,” of Woodbridge, Va.,  and charged him with multiple counts of possession of child pornography in Virginia and with 19 counts of sexual exploitation of a child here in Newton County. For more details, see our story posted on CovNews.com.

Old “Starmaker,” who is 61 years old, posed as a 22-year-old photographer in order to entice lewd pictures from a local 13-year-old girl.

We also praise the parents of the girl, who thought that something might be wrong and went to the police with their concerns.

We don’t understand this type of perversion directed against a child, but we are glad that we have a police force here in Covington that acts quickly to put such behavior behind bars.