A Newberry man was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of possessing nearly 20 child pornography media, court records show.
Patrick Perkins, 33, regularly uploaded child pornography to file-storage platform Google Drive between March and July, according to his arrest report.
Google began tipping off the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children June 13 and 26. From there, the case was passed to the Gainesville Police Department where a detective obtained the account name, email and IP address of the Google account.
The Alachua County Sheriff’s Office received the case after, in which the tips revealed a dozen of the images showed children between the ages of 6 and 10, some of which even displayed adults forcing sex acts on them.
Google’s login information allowed deputies to know the model phone used, and the IP address was the same as Perkins’ Newberry home. Deputies also received the birthday registered with the Google account, which matched Perkins’.
Deputies spoke with Perkins and a woman with him on a search warrant Nov. 22.
When child pornography was mentioned, the woman asked Perkins if his photography business featured underaged models, which he denied. Both denied knowing about the email connected to the Google account, according to the arrest report.
In a separate conversation with the deputy, Perkins said he didn’t know why the IP address and birthdate of the account matched his, according to the arrest report. His devices were confiscated.
Later investigations connected his devices and numbers to both a personal email and the Google account uploading the pornography, according to the arrest report.
When confronted, he denied uploading to the account and said he “believes the information could be spoofed,” according to the arrest report.
Across all tips and investigations, law enforcement allegedly found 17 images and two videos total uploaded to his Google Drive.
Perkins was arrested and booked into Alachua County Jail Wednesday evening. He faces one charge of possession of 10 or more instances of child pornography and three charges of electronically transmitting obscene material.
The possession of 10 or more child pornography content constitutes a second-degree felony, which can see up to 15 years in prison according to Florida Statutes.
His bond is set at $50,000, and as of Friday morning his next hearing is not yet scheduled.
Contact Aidan Bush at abush@alligator.org. Follow him on Twitter @aidandisto.
Aidan Bush is a third-year journalism major and the Spring 2024 Engagement Managing Editor of The Alligator. In his free time, he likes to listen to music and go kayaking.
