A Baldwin man is behind bars charged with four counts of sexually exploiting children. Habersham County Sheriff’s investigators assigned to the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force arrested 21-year-old Zach Bulman on Tuesday after he allegedly admitted to possessing child pornography.
Investigators called Bulman in for an interview after receiving a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
“Mr. Bulman was using several Snapchat accounts to essentially possess child pornography under different names. That raised an alarm with our partners at NCMEC and, ultimately, led to our investigation today and his arrest,” says HCSO Public Information Officer Kevin Angell.
Angell explains that anytime someone downloads or sends child pornography through social media channels, NCMEC alerts authorities so they can investigate if the perpetrator is within their jurisdiction.
Between May 2021 and January 2022, Angell says Bulman’s Snapchat accounts included four separate videos known to contain child pornography. The videos were not locally produced. They had been in circulation and contained unique identifiers that matched known pornographic material in the NCEMC database.
Authorities subpoenaed the Snapchat account information and records revealed the user lived in the 100 block of Heritage Gardens Road in Baldwin. Investigators tracked down Bulman at that address and asked him for an interview. During the interview at the sheriff’s office, Bulman reportedly admitted to having multiple email addresses, multiple Snapchat accounts with falsified registration information, and possessing child pornographic videos.
Investigators arrested and charged Bulman and booked him at the Habersham County Detention Center. At the time of this article’s publication, no bond information was available.
This is the first arrest Habersham’s ICACC Task Force has made this year. Currently, there are 30 other child pornography possession cases in the county under investigation.
“It’s a good feeling when we can take someone who’s essentially a predator off the market, not only from possessing these images but also from transmitting them,” says Deputy Angell. “Once an image is out there you can’t get it back, so, the only way we can get these images out of circulation is to arrest the predators, seize the devices, and delete the images.”
Investigators took Bulman’s phone into evidence as part of the arrest and investigation. It’s being processed to determine possible additional charges. The case remains under investigation.
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