PORTLAND – A 24-year-old Portland man has been arrested by the FBI on child-pornography charges.

Jonathan Fenton was arrested by FBI agents last week and charged with transportation of child pornography and possession of child pornography. He made an initial appearance in U.S. District Court on Friday and was released on his own recognizance.

FBI documents indicate that agents began investigating Fenton more than a year ago, when an agent signed on to a file-sharing website under an assumed user name. While on the site, he received a friend request from a user named “someone9423.”

The FBI said it traced the IP address associated with “someone9423” to Fenton. The agent said he downloaded two photographs and three videos depicting children engaged in sexual acts from a computer folder accessed via “someone9423.”

The file names indicated that the children in the photos and videos may have been as young as 5.

In July, the FBI obtained a search warrant and confiscated a computer and two external hard drives from Fenton’s room on Concord Street, where he lives with his parents.

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According to the FBI, Fenton admitted to agents that he had a “significant” amount of child porn on his computer and the hard drives, and that he sent and received child porn over the Internet.

Earlier this month, the FBI alleges, Fenton tried to send a photo of his penis to a boy who is younger than 18, although the boy said he was not able to open the picture.

The boy told the FBI that he “thought” he had sent a picture of his penis to Fenton, although he couldn’t remember when that happened.

Staff Writer Edward D. Murphy can be contacted at 791-6465 or at:

emurphy@pressherald.com

 


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