An Upper Gwynedd man is facing dozens of felony child pornography charges following a nearly 10 month investigation by the Montgomery County Detective Bureau.
The investigation began on Nov. 5, 2018, after county detectives received a tip originating from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) regarding suspected child porn that had been posted on a Tumblr account. NCMEC said that they were contacted by Tumblr on Oct. 9 regarding nine files of suspected child pornography that were posted by an account allegedly belonging to username "woweeeee76.”
The files, which were a mix of still photos, videos and animated GIFs, reportedly showed a prepubescent male in "sexually enticing positions and / or activities,” according to the complaint. Tumblr provided police with the IP and email addresses of the user, which were ultimately linked back to 32-year-old Kyle Sheehan, of the unit block of North Lane in Upper Gwynedd Township.
County detectives served a search warrant at Sheehan’s address on Feb. 28, 2019, and retrieved Sheehan’s iPhone, iPad mini, computers and hard drives, the report states. During the search, Sheehan reportedly told investigators, "I deleted the files. It was accidental. You’ll find things on my stuff,” the report states.
The contents of the devices and hard drives were forensically downloaded and turned over to the FBI's Philadelphia Regional Computer Forensics Lab (RCFL) for analysis on March 12, and detectives received the results of the analysis on May 24.
The results allegedly showed child pornographic material on Sheehan's iPhone, iPad, desktop computer and laptop, according to the report. There was also information identifying Sheehan as the owner of the Tumblr account, the report states.
In total, investigators allegedly found 73 files containing child pornography, including:
The complaint states that the images depicted early teenage boys who were naked or partially clothed posed in a sexually provocative manner. Some of the images depicted boys involved in sexual activities, and investigators also recovered child erotica images of pre-teen and early teenage boys in bathing suits and athletic activities, the report states.
Additionally, investigators found modified website bookmarks on the laptop, many with the names and ages of the boys depicted in the images and files. Other bookmarks included:
Investigators said that none of the images and videos from the Tumblr account were located on any of Sheehan’s devices, but a collage of young boys in bathing suits titled "The Beauty of Boys,” located on the iPad mini, contained an image of the same boy that was seen dancing naked in one of the videos reported by Tumblr, the report states.
As a result of the investigation, Sheehan has been charged with 50 felony counts of possession of child pornography and eight felony counts of criminal use of a communications facility.
Sheehan was arraigned on Aug. 29 by Magisterial District Judge Suzan Leonard, who set bail at $25,000 unsecured. He was then released from custody. His next court appearance is a preliminary hearing in front of Judge Leonard on Sept. 10 at 9 a.m.
(Editor's note: All suspects and defendants are innocent until proven guilty. This story was compiled using court records and the affidavit of probable cause, and reflects the point of view of the police. Should the defendant choose to issue a public statement, or is later found not guilty or has the charges dropped, we will update this article accordingly.)
See also:
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