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In separate cases, two men have been arrested and locked up on felony charges filed by investigators assigned to the state police Northeast Computer Crime Unit after child sexual abuse material was discovered on their cellphones, according to court records filed Monday at the office of District Judge Kirsten Gardner.
Warrants were served on Jeffery Scott Spong, 50, of 86 Park Road, Jersey Shore, and Jacob Scott Hollick, who turned 33 on Monday, of 610 Allegheny St., Jersey Shore, police. Both were taken into custody on Monday afternoon after a total of 15 troopers as well as agents with the FBI office executed search warrants at their homes and seized a total of six cellphones, police said. The first search warrant was executed at Spong's home in Watson Township followed by a raid at Hollick's address, police said.
Hollick admitted that there was about "20 files of child sexual abuse material on his devices. He said he had been viewing adult pornography which spiraled into viewing" child pornography. He admitted to viewing child pornography on a website "multiple times," it was stated in an affidavit. He also admitted that he "had been searching for young children as well as some pre-teen" youth, the court document stated. A preliminary on-scene "forensic preview" of Hollick's two cellphones revealed four files that were considered child pornograpy, police added. Hollick said he knew "viewing and possessing child sexual abuse material was wrong," the affidavit stated.
On Spong's six cellphones, investigators found "in excess of 10 images, files that depicted" child pornography, it was alleged. On the devices, troopers came upon "a multitude of artificially-generated child sexual abuse material files" as well as "thousands of images" of suspected child pornography.
Troopers assigned to the Montoursville barracks as well as officers with Lycoming Regional police assisted in executing the search warrants.
Identified in the affidavit as a "sexually-violent predator," Spong was arraigned before Gardner on a total of 13 counts of sexual abuse of children and jailed in the Lycoming County Prison on no bail. Hollick was charged with eight counts of sexual abuse of children and four counts of illegal use of a cellphone. He was jailed in lieu of $200,000 bail.