Newberry Man Arrested for Child Pornography

NEWBERRY ‒ Patrick Michael Perkins, 33, was arrested on Wednesday, Jan. 25, and charged with possession of 10 or more child pornography images and three counts of electronic transmission of child pornography.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children provided information to the Gainesville Police Department (GPD) regarding a Google account that had uploaded 17 child pornography images and two videos to Google Drive between March 7 and July 12, 2022. The images contained nude, prepubescent female children, approximately 6 to 10 years old, exposing their vaginal area. Three of the images contained “clear sex acts being done to the children.” All of the images and videos were reportedly verified to be child pornography.

Google provided IP addresses for the uploads and logins, along with a name on the account, a date of birth matching Perkins’ date of birth and an email address. A search warrant was executed on Perkins’ residence on Nov. 22, 2022, and Perkins and another resident were interviewed.

The officer reported that as soon as he mentioned child pornography, the second person immediately started asking Perkins about his photography business and whether any of his models were minors. He reportedly told that person that all his models provided identification showing that they are of legal age and completed a form.

The detective also reported that when he read the email address, the second person immediately looked at Perkins, but both of them denied any knowledge of that email address. The detective interviewed Perkins separately, and Perkins reportedly said he didn’t know why the IP address came back to his home or why the date of birth on the account matched his.

The detective reported that information from Google showed that the only phone active on the email account was Perkins’ phone. The detective also learned that a new device accessed the email account on March 8, 2022, and that Perkins activated a new T-Mobile device on that date.

Perkins went to GPD for an interview. Post Miranda, he reportedly said he did not remember getting a new device in March, “due to a bad memory.” He reportedly said he’s the only one with access to his device and that he believed the information showing his device logging into the Gmail account used to upload the images “could be spoofed.” He did not admit to uploading any images.

Bond was set at $50,000.

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