Shenandoah man facing three dozen child pornography charges
SHENANDOAH – A borough man is in Schuylkill County Prison facing 36 felony charges related to child pornography.
Angel German, 28, of 24 East Coal Street, was charged Tuesday by the state Attorney General’s Office.
According to the criminal complaint filed by Special Agent Caitlin Smith, authorities received a tip through the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children on June 17, in which 408 apparent child pornography files had been uploaded to Google Photos and Google Drive.
The files depicted children as young as toddlers involved in various sexual acts.
Police served a search warrant on the upload IP address’s internet service provider, who identified the customer as German. An associated phone number was also traced to German.
A search warrant was served on German’s Shenandoah home on Tuesday, July 30 and German was questioned by agents from the Attorney General’s office.
He first claimed that his account was hacked, but authorities said he changed his story when he was told that the IP address traced to his home. He then said he was on WhatsApp when he received “a content package of child pornography” from a group chat with people from the Dominican Republic.
He saved those items from his cell phone to a flash drive, he told authorities, and transferred them to a tablet as well.
Multiple electronics were seized from the home and 35 such files were found on a flash drive.
Police alleged that he had been in possession of the files since May 4.
He is charged with 35 counts of felony possession of child pornography and one count of felony criminal use of a communications facility.
German was arraigned by Magisterial District Judge Anthony Kilker and committed to Schuylkill County Prison, unable to post $100,000 bail.
A preliminary hearing is set for August 22.
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