Photo by James Short.
An online vigilante from Whitpain Township has pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography.
Brian Carrigan, 21, pleaded guilty on April 30 to 10 felony counts of possessing child pornography, as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors. Dozens of additional counts and charges will be dropped in exchange for his plea, court records show.
Sentencing was deferred to Aug. 12 to allow for a pre-sentencing investigation, which will include psychosexual and Pennsylvania Sexual Offenders Assessment Board evaluations, according to a report by Carl Hessler Jr. at The Reporter. Carrigan could be sentenced up to 23 months in county jail on the charges, and he’ll also face a 15 year registration requirement under Pennsylvania’s Sexual Offender Registration and Notification Act.
Carrigan remains free on $10,000 unsecured bail, with a prohibition on having unsupervised contact with minors and only being able to use the internet for employment-related purposes.
Police said they initially made contact with Carrigan at his home in June 2022, after receiving a cybertip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) regarding a Snapchat user who had uploaded files containing suspected child sex abuse material (CSAM). Carrigan told police that he was targeting and reporting pedophiles on Telegram that were exchanging CSAM, and the cybertip from Snapchat was likely in retaliation for his actions, according to charging documents.
Investigators at the time said they educated Carrigan on safer internet usage, and Carrigan told them he understood. However, a pair of additional cybertips in November 2022 from Discord and Dropbox detailing uploads of CSAM materials from accounts belonging to Carrigan prompted a return visit to his home by police in December 2022, according to the criminal complaint.
While speaking to police, Carrigan allegedly claimed ownership of the Dropbox and Discord accounts, and again stated he believed the cybertips were filed in retaliation for his vigilantism, according to the complaint. When asked why there were CSAM files being stored in his Dropbox account, Carrigan could not provide an answer, police said.
Investigators said Carrigan allegedly confessed that a sense of guilt over collecting CSAM had prompted him to target and report pedophiles online. He then provided police with his cellphone, where they uncovered 80 images and videos of CSAM following a forensic download, according to the complaint.
A review of the files by police showed they contained images of videos of male and female children between the ages of 3 years old and 14 years old being sexually abused by adults, the complaint states. Investigators also located one of the files mentioned in one of the cybertips, along with accompanying still images, police said.
Carrigan was taken into custody and arraigned on the charges on March 8, 2023.
