Waukesha County child sexual assault, porn possession; teen charged
Waukesha County Sheriffs Department
WALES, Wis. - A Waukesha County teen is accused of first-degree child sexual assault and 15 counts of child pornography possession.
Prosecutors charged the 16-year-old boy from Wales as an adult in the case, and court records show he's being held on $5,000 cash bond. FOX6 News is not naming him because he is a juvenile.
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The Waukesha County Sheriff's Department received a cybertip in April. According to a criminal complaint, the tip reported that someone in Wales uploaded 11 files, believed to depict child exploitation material, to Snapchat in March. There was a phone number, date of birth, email address and screen name associated with the account. Investigators tracked down the IP address used at the time of the uploads.
Prosecutors said the images depicted victims between the ages of 6 months and 12 years old.
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The complaint states information associated with the Snapchat account – specifically the email address – led them to the teen, who was listed as a suspect in a previous child pornography investigation. That case was "closed as a matter of record," according to court filings.
In July, the sheriff's department received a second cybertip linked to the teen in which four files of suspected child pornography were uploaded to a Dropbox account.
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Investigators spoke to the teen. Prosecutors said he told them he learned of child pornography through online groups, including the platform Telegram, and had been involved with those groups for years to this point.
During the investigation, the complaint states the teen admitted to a sexual assault involving a 4-year-old child. The teen said he showed the child porn, and the child then touched the teen inappropriately.