LARGO – A Pinellas County man has been charged in a plot to cook and eat children. Ronald Brown, 57, appeared in shackles in federal court on July 24, at a bond hearing that was ultimately postponed. Department of Homeland Security investigators claim they uncovered disturbing evidence in Brown’s Largo residence, including child bondage porn, and at least one image of a child who appears to be dead.

Federal agents say transcripts depict highly graphic online conversations between Brown (who works as a professional children’s entertainer) and another man, in which they discuss—at length—the best way to kill, dismember, cook, and eat the remains of a 2-year-old.

The other man, Michael Arnett, 38, was arrested in May in his Kansas home, as part of an online child pornography sting. –

CLIFF DUNN