A month-long investigation and confession led to an Alto man’s arrest on child pornography charges, officials say.
According to the Habersham County Sheriff’s Office, 40-year-old Michael Blake Thomas admitted to creating a SnapChat account with falsified information so he could talk to female users. He also admitted to downloading child pornographic images and videos to share with those users.
Deputy Kevin Angell says the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force was tipped off to the SnapChat account by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. When they followed up on the report, it led them to Thomas.
“This guy created a fake account in a girl’s name because he basically wanted to catfish other women into sending him nude pictures of themselves,” Angell explains. In exchange for those nude images, Thomas allegedly sent the women child pornography.
Investigators interviewed Thomas in late April. They followed up on the information they obtained and served additional subpoenas and search warrants on Thomas’ social media accounts.
As a result of the investigation, deputies arrested and charged Thomas with four counts of sexual exploitation of children – two counts for possessing child pornography and two counts for distributing it.
Deputies booked Thomas into the Habersham County jail where he is awaiting a bond hearing.
