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Don Bartling, a 54-year-old Miami resident and a student at Florida International University, has been arrested on charges of downloading and sharing child pornography. Bartling, according to a criminal complaint, told officials that he started downloading child pornography sometime in the past three to five years, and said that he had since amassed more than 1,000 child pornography videos on his computer.
Bartling’s activities were first detected back in October when a Special Agent with Homeland Security Investigations detected that an IP address associated with Bartling’s residence was sharing several files on a peer-to-peer file sharing service. The agent downloaded two of the videos and found that the videos depicted children, one a male and another a female, under the age of 12 in the nude.
The investigator tracked the IP address to Bartling’s residence. He shared the home with his brother, who claims to be computer illiterate. Bartling meanwhile told investigators that he had a degree in information technology, and was in the midst of obtaining a masters degree in computer science at FIU.
After obtaining a warrant, investigators found at least 20 child pornography videos.
If convicted, Bartling could face 20 years for distribution of child pornography and another 10 for possession of child pornography.
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