A collection of child pornography on a hidden laptop led Gloucester and Massachusetts State Police to arrest a 24-year-old Seeall Street man Wednesday morning, with state police discovering the pornography during part of a larger probe into child pornography dissemination through file sharing in the state.
Police, executing a search warrant at 6:32 a.m., arrived at the Seeall home where Shaun Batchelder lives, and located a laptop hidden under Batchelder’s mattress with “hundreds of graphic images” of child pornography along with at least two “very graphic” child pornography videos, according to a police report.
A judge held Batchelder on $1,000 cash bail at Middleton Jail on the charges of both distributing and possessing child pornography, after an arraignment in Gloucester District Court Wednesday morning.
The videos police found on his computer and shared through his computer’s personal IP address showed “young preadolescent children” involved in sexual activities, according to police. All of the videos found, including six at least partial videos, depict incestuous relationships between adults and young children described in file titles as between the ages of six and nine years old, according to a state police report.
One video includes a girl, described as 9 years old in the video’s title, who police recognize as a prior victim of child pornography.
“I know that this female has been identified by law enforcement and was under the age of eighteen years old when this video was created,” State Trooper James Dowling wrote in the state police report.
Police nabbed Batchelder as part of an investigation into person to person file sharing of child pornography that had been ongoing since at least October, according to a state police report. A state police sergeant tracking online video sharing could identify the computer-specific IP address of both those sharing and those receiving pornographic videos featuring children, and watched the videos to classify the content.
That sergeant tracked Batchelder’s IP address, and finding that Comcast Cable was the internet provider for that address, administratively subpoenaed the cable company for records that would provide police with the address and name of the resident whom the IP address is registered to. Comcast responded to that administrative subpoena in November, then on March 15 Gloucester District Court granted police a search warrant.
Batchelder answered the door to the Seeall home when Trooper Dowling and Detective Steven Mizzoni knocked Wednesday morning. Batchelder showed the police to his room and directed them to a desktop computer in the room, saying it was his only computer, but another person living at the home told police Batchelder uses a laptop too, according to the state police report.
When police located that laptop under Batchelder’s mattress, Batchelder reportedly told police he had forgotten about that computer. Police said although a state trooper discovered a file sharing network and “several hundred” notable files on Batchelder’s computer, Batchelder denied any knowledge of the files and the program.
“He stated he had no idea how any child pornography would be in his computer,” police said. “He did state that he had seen child pornography before when he was younger.”
Batchelder’s driver’s license, which expired last April (note to editor: 2012), depicts a blonde haired, blue eyed man with a height listed as 5 foot 7 inches tall and a home address in Haverhill.
Police arrested Batchelder and transported him to the state police barracks in Danvers for booking.
Marjorie Nesin can be reached at 978-283-7000, x3451, or at mnesin@gloucestertimes.com.
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