Rochester Police Investigators Find Thousands of Child Porn Files

Rochester, MN (KROC-AM News) - A Rochester man was arraigned today in Olmsted County Court on 10 child pornography charges.

The criminal complaint filed against 26-year-old Brenden Keiren Walsh says he became the target of an investigation after Rochester police received a cyber tip in April. It alleged that 20 videos of suspected Child Sexual Abuse Material had been uploaded to a Google account in his name and associated with email addresses and phone numbers linked to Walsh.

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A resulting search warrant was executed a few weeks later and resulted in the seizure of a cell phone that was in the Walsh's possession that allegedly contained nearly 3000 images and videos "consistent with Child Sexual Abuse Material." The criminal complaint says investigators also discovered that thousands of the images and videos had been sent to other people and that most of them depicted girls as young as one-year-old.

Olmsted County Sheriff's Office photo

The criminal charges also indicate that a search of his home in southeast Rochester led to the discovery of thousands of suspected child pornography images and videos stored in other electronic devices. The court document also says suspected Child Sexual Abuse Materials were found stored on Walsh's Google and Facebook accounts.

(Photo by Alexander Koerner/Getty Images)

The criminal complaint includes details about six images and videos depicting sexual assault on victims as as young as one or two years old. The charges also state that investigators found evidence that Walsh identified himself as a 12-year-old girl during conversations through a private messenger application that were sexual in nature. Walsh also alleged that he used the application to send and receive child pornography.

Walsh was freed without bail following today's court hearing. He is scheduled to return to court in July for an evidentiary hearing.

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