Credit: Montgomery County District Attorney.
Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin R. Steele announced the arrest of William Marquis Martin, 44, of Montgomery Township, on felony charges of disseminating and possessing child pornography.
The investigation began when a referral was made to Montgomery County Detectives regarding a report from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children about a user on MediaLab/Kik uploading two video files that appeared to be child abuse material, according to the DA’s office.
Members of the Montgomery County Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force reviewed the videos and determined that they were child sexual abuse material.
Montgomery County detectives served Verizon and AT&T with an administrative subpoena to obtain the subscriber information for the IP addresses used to log on to the Kik account during November and December 2024.
Both returned addresses and contact information to the defendant’s residence in Lansdale, listed in the charging documents as on Meadow Glen Road.
Detectives executed a search warrant on Martin’s residence and seized his cellphone. The cellphone was forensically examined, which found numerous images of Child Sexual Abuse Material involving young female children and adults.
The defendant was arrested and charged with 100 felony counts of disseminating child sexual abuse material, 10 counts of possessing child sexual abuse material and criminal use of a communications facility.
Martin was arraigned on Aug. 21 before Magisterial District Judge Todd N. Barnes, who set bail at $50,000 unsecured.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled for 1:15 p.m. on Sept. 16 before Magisterial District Judge Andrea Duffy.
Detectives of the Montgomery County Detective Bureau, along with specially trained and sworn detectives from police departments in Montgomery County, routinely work with the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force to protect children from Internet predators by aggressively and proactively investigating Internet crimes that exploit children.
