NORRISTOWN — A Whitpain Township man is waiting for a judge to decide his punishment after admitting to having multiple images and videos showing child pornography on his cellphone.
Brian Patrick Carrigan, 21, of the 1400 block of Manor Lane in the Blue Bell section of Whitpain, admitted in Montgomery County Court to 10 felony counts of having child pornography in connection with incidents between May and December 2022.
Judge Wendy G. Rothstein postponed sentencing so that court officials can finish a background investigation report about Carrigan, including a psychosexual evaluation.
Carrigan could get a maximum sentence of 11½ to 23 months in jail for the charges.
Regardless of the sentence Carrigan eventually receives, he will need to report his address to state police for 15 years to comply with Pennsylvania’s Sexual Offender Registration and Notification Act, previously known as Megan’s Law.
Additionally, Carrigan will be assessed by the Pennsylvania Sexual Offenders Assessment Board, which will decide if he meets state criteria to be classified as a sexually violent predator. Those classified as predators face stricter restrictions during parole and probationary periods.
Carrigan is free on bail until his sentencing hearing later this year.
The investigation began on May 11, 2022, when authorities received a CyberTip from the social media app Snapchat that a user of the messaging service uploaded suspected child sexual abuse material, according to a criminal complaint filed by county Detective Michael Henricks.
Authorities traced the user’s cellphone number and linked it to Carrigan.
On June 29, 2022, detectives visited Carrigan’s residence without warning and explained the nature of the CyberTip to Carrigan. At that time, Carrigan claimed he was on the Telegram application and was reporting people for exchanging child sexual abuse material, according to the arrest affidavit.
“Brian told us this was most likely in retaliation for his actions. Brian confirmed the Snapchat account was his and said the person seen in the video reported was himself. We educated Brian on safer internet usage and Brian told us he understood,” Henricks alleged in the arrest affidavit.
However, authorities received another CyberTip on Nov. 16, 2022, from the social media app Discord, reporting a user uploaded suspected child sexual abuse material. Authorities linked the file upload to Carrigan’s phone and email address, according to the criminal complaint.
On Nov. 28, 2022, authorities received a CyberTip from Dropbox, a cloud-based file storage service, reporting a user uploaded suspected child sexual abuse material which was traced to an email address linked to Carrigan, according to the arrest affidavit. Detectives alleged three videos depicted children as young as 10 engaged in sexual acts or poses.
Detectives paid another unannounced visit to Carrigan’s residence on Dec. 20, 2022.
Brian once again confirmed that both his Discord and Dropbox accounts were his. He said he was trying to report people sharing child sexual abuse material on Discord, but couldn't explain how it ended up in his Dropbox account, according to Henricks.
Court documents show that Carrigan admitted to collecting child sexual abuse material and reporting Discord servers because he felt guilty about it.
When asked if there would be child pornography on his cellphone, Carrigan admitted it and handed over the phone to detectives.
During a forensic review of Carrigan’s cellphone, detectives found 80 images or videos of child sexual abuse material, some showing children as young as 5 years old, according to the arrest affidavit.
Carrigan is expected to have charges of criminal use of a communication facility dismissed at the time of sentencing.
