Cyber Tips lead to 2 arrests for child pornography in Irwin

Two men are facing dozens of child pornography charges out of Westmoreland County after Cyber Tips alerted police of the crimes.

According to a criminal complaint, a Cyber Tip came in regarding a Microsoft Bing image that allegedly contained child porn on July 6, 2022. The image’s IP address was traced back to Comcast.

On Aug. 15, 2022, a subpoena was issued on Comcast to investigate the IP address. Nearly five months later, the company responded with subscriber information which linked back to Irwin, the complaint said.

Officers searched the house that the IP address was traced back to. A man in the house, identified as Robert O’Brien, 85, admitted to “looking at that stuff again” and “it was mainly from his laptop in the basement,” the complaint said.

Officers seized several items that belonged to O’Brien, all of which were analyzed. A laptop was found to have multiple files of child pornography on them, including a video of a child and an adult.

O’Brien is charged with 10 counts of child pornography and one count of criminal use of a communication facility.

Cyber Tips also alerted police of another suspected child porn file that was uploaded from Irwin on May 3, 2023. Almost two dozen Cyber Tips total were generated from the same account holder during an investigation from the Attorney General’s Office.

On Dec. 8, 2023, more Cyber Tips were created after officers received a search warrant for the phone number and email associated with the account.

During 2023, 69 total suspected child porn files were found from the account, the complaint said.

On Jan. 22, a subpoena was submitted to Verizon to track the phone number. The company responded with a Bethel Park address, court documents said.

The same day, a subpoena was also issued to Google to track the email address. It was tracked to a man named James Molzer.

Comcast was also subpoenaed and gave subscriber information linked to Molzer with an Irwin address.

More searches indicated that Molzer had addresses tied to his name in Irwin and Bethel Park, with the Westmoreland County address appearing more frequently according to the complaint.

Officers executed a search warrant of Molzer’s Irwin address, which he was inside of. He told police his cell phone was through Verizon and was still on his parent’s plan. His parents lived in Bethel Park, court documents said.

The complaint said Molzer told police he viewed child porn in the past beginning in college with his friends. He said he continued to do so to stay active in groups he belonged to online. He also said he had child porn on his devices, which an examination proved.

According to the complaint, at least 25 child porn files were found on Molzer’s cell phone.

Molzer is charged with 25 counts of possession of child pornography and one count of criminal use of a communication facility.

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