LAKELAND, Fl – It wasn’t the gruesome photos on Chris Wilson’s Web site that got him in trouble with the law.

It was explicit sexual images and videos, Polk County authorities say.

On Friday, Wilson, a former police officer who made headlines after being accused of providing free porn to soldiers in exchange for photos that included shots of mangled bodies, was charged with hundreds of obscenity counts.

“In my 33 years in law enforcement, this was the most horrific, vile, obscene material that I have ever seen,” Sheriff Grady Judd said.

“It is beyond the normal person’s wildest imagination.”

Wilson operates a Web site where most customers must pay to view pornography.

Soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan reportedly were given free access for sending in photos that apparently were taken in the war zone, officials have said.

Wilson, 27, became a key figure in a controversy that reached the Pentagon after U.S. military officials became aware of his site and its grisly content, and Islamic officials complained to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

The Army was unable to identify soldiers who might have submitted shots of bodies and body parts, Army spokesman Paul Boyce said Friday. After a preliminary inquiry, the Army warned troops in the war zone about misuse of digital photos and e-mail, which might constitute conduct unbecoming of a soldier, Boyce said.

Judd said his agency will share its findings with the U.S. Army Criminal Investigations Division.

Judd said Wilson, who is a certified police officer and once worked in Eagle Lake, was warned a few months ago about the content of another Web site he operated. No charges were filed at that time, he said.

The sheriff’s office began an investigation after news reports about Wilson’s Web site and its posting of apparent war zone photos surfaced.

About 7,600 photos and videos were on his site, which has an address that contains a vulgar phrase. State attorney’s investigators obtained film and photographs from the site and took them to a judge, who determined there was a basis for an obscenity case, said Chip Thullbery, state attorney’s office spokesman.

In a recent interview, Wilson offered no apologies for the bloody images.

“To me, this is a real look at what’s going on over there,” Wilson said then. “It’s right from their cameras to the site.”

Detectives on Friday served a search warrant at Wilson’s residence for customer lists, computers, and records and documents, Judd said.

Judd and Polk officials have waged a long campaign against pornography in the Central Florida county.

Wilson, of 2020 Edgewood Drive E., No. 38, was charged with one count of wholesale distribution of obscene material and 300 misdemeanor obscenity counts. He was booked into the county jail with bail set at $151,000.