MILFORD, PA — Pike County District Attorney Ray Tonkin announced several arrests of persons charged with child pornography offenses in Pike County over the past several months.  A partnership between the Pike County District Attorney’s Office with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force has shown that together officials can fight to bring child predators to justice.  Recently charged with Sexual Abuse of Children, which is the official crime defining child pornography offenses in Pennsylvania are Logan Kelly, age 18, of Shohola, Joseph P. Casella, Age 72, of Hawley, Aidan Collins, age 18, of Dingmans Ferry, and Joseph Coletto, age 78, of Greentown.

Each investigation began with a cyber tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force that a person had been interacting with apparent child sexual abuse material online.  From there, the tip is provided to the local partner, the Pike County District Attorney’s Office.  Then detectives from the Pike County District Attorney’s Office Criminal Investigation Division began to obtain subpoenas and search warrants to investigate the source of where the child pornography is being possessed and disseminated in Pike County.  Then comes the final step of bringing a search warrant to the house where the person is to extract information from a variety of electronic devices, from computers to cell phones to other storage drives.  Once this is complete an arrest can be made.

Tonkin noted that if the suspect has access to any minor children the children can be interviewed at Dickson House Children’s Advocacy Center by trained forensic interviewers to determine if the child has been molested.  

Tonkin remarked, “The partnership with the ICAC Task Force and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has been a real plus in Pike County to ferret out sexual predators online that exploit children.” Tonkin also thanked the Pennsylvania State Police Computer Crime Unit and the Blooming Grove Barracks, the Pike County Sheriff, the Delaware Valley School Police and the Wayne County District Attorney’s Office for their assistance in these investigations.