Gainesville man arrested on child porn charges

Alan Thur (Hall County Sheriff's Office)

Hall County sheriff’s investigators charged a 75-year-old Gainesville man with seven child pornography-related offenses this week.

The HCSO inquiry began on Monday, February 27, when investigators received a cyber tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). The investigation culminated on Tuesday morning, March 14, when HCSO executed a search warrant at Alan Neil Thur’s home in the 1400 block of Bluff Valley Circle.

Deputies arrested him without incident.

According to the initial investigation, Thur uploaded at least one image of child pornography to a search engine on November 7, 2022. He’s charged with two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor for that incident, one each for possession and distribution of the image.

Thur faces five additional counts of the same charge in connection with this week’s search warrant. As deputies carried out the search, Thur was viewing five images of child pornography on his computer.

The GBI Child Exploitation and Computer Crimes (CEACC) Unit assisted in the search, conducting forensic processing on Thur’s computer.

Thur remains in the Hall County Jail without bond. The case remains under investigation.