Kyle Sheehan, 34, of Upper Gwynedd.
An Upper Gwynedd man is heading to jail after pleading guilty on Friday morning to one count of possession of child pornography.
Kyle Sheehan, 34, has been sentenced to three-to-23-months in county jail, followed by four years of probation, according to court records. Common Pleas Judge William Carpenter also ordered that Sheehan undergo a sexually violent predator risk assessment, and added that Sheehan will have to register as a Tier 1 sex offender for 15 years as part of his sentence.
Sheehan will report to the Montgomery County Correctional Facility on March 5 at 9 a.m., according to court records. Until then, he remains free on $25,000 unsecured bail.
The investigation into Sheehan 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, 2018, 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 Sheehan, who was residing along unit block of North Lane.
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, 2019, and detectives received the results of the analysis on May 24, 2019.
The results 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:
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 was charged with 50 felony counts of possession of child pornography and eight felony counts of criminal use of a communications facility. With Sheehan’s guilty plea to one count of possession of child pornography on Friday, the remaining 49 counts of possession and eight counts of criminal use of a communication facility were dismissed, according to court records.
Sheehan, who was also arrested on DUI charges in the weeks after his arraignment on child pornography charges, also pleaded guilty to one count of “DUI: Highest Rate of Alcohol (BAC .16+)” on Friday, receiving a sentence of three-days-to-six-months in county jail. That sentence will also begin on March 5, and will run concurrent with his sentence on the child pornography charges.
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