By ROSE QUINN
rquinn@delcotimes.com
A 22-year-old Philadelphia man told authorities he was 13 or 14 when he first began to look at child pornography, according to court documents.
Robert Cruz, of the 3800 block of North Reese Street, admitted to viewing more than 900 online files of child pornography, mostly by video, and that the youngest child was 13, the affidavit of probable cause for his arrest states.
Arrested July 26, Cruz was charged with 52 counts of possession of child pornography, two counts of dissemination of child pornography and one count of criminal use of a communication facility, all third-degree felonies.
Cruz was remanded to the county prison in lieu of posting 10 percent of $100,000 bail. A preliminary hearing is scheduled today before Magisterial District Judge Stephanie Klein in Media.
According to the affidavit by Pennsylvania State Police Trooper First Class Michael Fegley, who works closely with the Delaware County Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, charges against Cruz resulted from an investigation that began by county Detective Lisa Carroll on Feb. 16.
On that date, Carroll was on the Gnutella network, conducting undercover investigations into the Internet sharing of child pornography. She found a computer sharing 962 files, 27 of which were previously identified as child pornography.
Further investigation by Carroll included downloading the files and tracking the Internet Protocol (IP) address of the host computer.
The IP address was traced to the North Reese Street address, the affidavit states. When Fegley and other authorities arrived with a warrant to search the house June 10, Cruz was there. Though Lt. David C. Peifer, ICAC task force supervisor, told Cruz he was not under arrest at that time, the affidavit states Cruz agreed to answer some questions.
Cruz allegedly told Peifer that he first installed file-sharing programs for music, but also searched for and downloaded child pornography. He said it had been about a month since he viewed any images of children. He denied ever touching or photographing a child and said all of the images he viewed were from the Internet.
Cruz is the 27th individual arrested this year by the county ICAC task force.
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