Pace teen arrested for downloading child pornography
A Pace teen was arrested Thursday night by the Attorney General's CyberCrime Unit.
Kyle Lawson, 19 of Avenida De Golf in Pace, was arrested on five counts of possession of child pornography. This is a third degree felony that is punishable by one to five years on each count.
CyberCrime investigators identified images of child pornography and traced the images back to Lawson's computer.
Lawson admitted to using a file-sharing program such as “Limewire” to download images of child pornography from the Internet. He also understood how the file-sharing program worked.
Limewire and other file-sharing programs will allow you to download files from another person’s computer, but in turn you also can allow other users to download the same image or files from you once they are on your computer.
Lawson was discovered through the efforts of the Florida Attorney General’s CyberCrime Unit based in the Santa Rosa Kids House.
When asked on how Lawson was discovered, Sandi Copes media specialist with the Attorney General’s Office would not answer.
“We do not reveal the methods we use in locating these individuals since it would give them a better idea on how to hide and be harder for us to detect,” said Copes.
Thursday night a search warrant was executed at Lawson's home on Avenida De Golf where investigators seized a computer. Investigators will conduct a forensic analysis on the seized computer.
Lawson told detectives after being read his Miranda rights that he utilized search terms such as “pthc” (pre-tee hard core) and “incest” to locate the images he downloaded from the file-sharing service.
The video’s in question ranged in length from almost 26 minutes to just under three minutes with the children covering a wide range of ages according to the affidavit for the search warrant.
An initial review of Lawson's computer contents revealed some images of children appearing to be as young as toddlers. Investigators will conduct a forensic analysis of the computer seized at Lawson's home.
Assisting in Lawson's arrest were officers with the Santa Rosa County Sheriff's Office and the Pensacola Police Department. Lawson is currently lodged in the Santa Rosa County Jail without bond.
