Two local men are facing child pornography charges.
On Monday, Timothy Brown, 38, of Chelsea was arraigned in Chelsea District Court today on one count of possession of child pornography. Judge Matthew Nestor set bail at $10,000 and ordered Brown to return to court April 18 for a pre-trial hearing.
The case stems from an investigation conducted by Massachusetts State Police assigned to District Attorney Kevin Hayden’s office and by Assistant District Attorney Ashley Polin, chief of Hayden’s human trafficking and exploitation unit.
A second man connected to the case, Kenneth Higgins, 45, of Revere, was arraigned on March 13 and ordered held on $75,000 bail. Higgins was charged with one count of possession of child pornography, third offense. Higgins returns to court April 10.
Both cases stem from a National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) cybertip from Yahoo. Yahoo reported to NCMEC that an email user had sent an email with 16 picture attachments (8 of which are duplicates of the other 8 images). The pictures are a series showing a young boy becoming undressed, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office.
Yahoo also gave NCMEC the IP address, dates, and times that the email was sent and the account was accessed. Through a series of administrative subpoenas based on the information in the cybertip, Massachusetts State Police and the Suffolk DA’s office identified Kenneth Higgins and Timothy Brown as the suspects.
Higgins was identified through the email address itself and a phone number associated with the email address and Brown was identified from one of the IP addresses used to access the email account, according to the DA’s office.
On March 13, the Massachusetts State Police executed search warrants at both Higgins and Brown’s addresses. In Higgins home, they located a Motorola Moto cellphone and several additional devices, SD cards, and USBs. Higgins then participated in a recorded interview and confessed to having the child sexual abuse material, according to the DA’s office. Higgins was arrested and then arraigned in Chelsea Court that same day.
In Brown’s home, law enforcement officials stated they located and seized three black iPhones and a Coolpad cellphone. On March 15, troopers assigned to the Cyber Crime Unit accessed the SD card from the Coolpad cellphone and found a downloads folder. Within the downloads folder, troopers found additional folders including one titled, “13-17 year old females.”
Within that folder, troopers matched some of the images/videos to known images of child sexual abuse material. In addition to the known images, troopers found 600 images believed to be child sexual abuse material within that folder. The Coolpad cellphone itself had over 2,700 images/videos with most of those images and videos believed to be child sexual abuse materials, according to the DA’s office. Following this discovery, troopers arrested Brown over the weekend.
“This investigation provides an excellent example of a tech company flagging a serious crime for law enforcement and then investigators from State Police and our human trafficking and exploitation unit following that lead directly to these two individuals,” said Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayde. “This should make clear to anyone who contributes in any way to the sexual exploitation of children that they are likely to be caught and brought to justice.”
Higgins is a level 2 sex offender and was on probation following a prison term for previous child pornography charges, according to the Massachusetts State Police.