WEST MONROE, La. — (KTVE/KARD) A West Monroe man has been arrested and charged with multiple counts of Possession of Child Pornography.
According to the Ouachita Correctional Center website, 27-year-old Matthew Dean Hamilton has been arrested on 100 counts of Possession of Child Pornography, under age 13.
According to the arrest warrant for Hamilton, the investigation began on November 25, 2020, when Special Agents of the Louisiana Bureau of Investigation Cyber Crime Unit received a cyber tip report from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) that a Discord user was in possession of child porn on November 1, 2020. Then on December 8, 2020, agents received another tip from NCMEC that Microsoft became aware that a BingImage user uploaded several images believed to be child pornography. That same day, special agents received a second tip from the NCMEC that an Instagram user uploaded several images believed to be child pornography.
Over the course of the investigation, agents were able to obtain several reports from Bing, Instagram, and Discord that showed discussions of trading child porn images between the user thought to be Hamilton and other users.
On March 2, 2021, special agents were able to confirm the user’s identity as Hamilton. Agents then ran a criminal history check that revealed Hamilton was arrested in September 2018 for 44 counts of Pornography Involving Juveniles. Hamilton received a sentence of 3 years, suspended with 2 years of supervised probation for those charges in February of 2021.
When agents checked in with Hamilton’s probation officer, they discovered an address where they could find Hamilton.
Hamilton was then booked into OCC on Thursday, March 4, 2021, and his bond has been set at $250,000.