A Mountain Home man pled guilty to child porn charges in Baxter County Circuit Court Monday.
Twenty-seven-year-old Joel Laban Belcher was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
He still faces similar charges in Fulton County.
Belcher’s attorney requested that his client remain free until he appeared to make his plea in Fulton County. Circuit Judge John Putman turned down the request, citing past problems with the arrangement.
In Baxter County, Belcher pled to 25 counts of distributing, possessing or viewing matter depicting sexually explicit conduct involving a child.
He faces 14 counts in Fulton County where he is scheduled to appear November 29.
Belcher wound up being charged in two counties because he moved from Salem to Mountain Home.
The investigation into Belcher’s activities began in late November last year and ended with his arrest in early March.
Local investigators began their work after receiving information from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) regarding the handling of pornographic images involving children.
Snapchat, a multimedia messaging app, reported to NCMEC that a user name belonging to Belcher had violated the providers terms and conditions by uploading videos which contained scenes of child sexual abuse.
Belcher was also identified as the owner of the IP address provided by Snapchat.
During the investigation, it was determined that Belcher had moved to Mountain Home from Salem. He was traced to an address in Mountain Home and arrested March 4.
Belcher is alleged to have admitted to investigators that he had uploaded and downloaded material containing Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM). But, he alleged in one interview, that he did it to catch and report people trading in the illegal material to law enforcement. He admitted at one point he was sexually attracted to children and needed help with the problem.
Belcher said he had molested a young female relative years ago, and underwent extensive counseling at the time.
There was evidence obtained in an examination of various electronic devices belonging to Belcher reported to contain a discussion of sexual activity with a 12-year-old female.
Belcher is said to have denied knowing the young girls shown on material taken from his cellphone and said he never molested any young girl, other than the female relative.
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