Lawrence County Man Facing 50 Counts of Sexual Abuse of Children

Jay W. Flagg, 60, of 319 S. Croton Ave., New Castle, is facing 50 felony counts of sexual abuse of children, one felony count of dissemination of photographs, videotapes, computer depictions, and films, and one felony count of criminal use of communication facility proceeding an incident involving child pornography.

According to the criminal complaint filed 3-24-17, on 2-23-16 Flagg was investigated after the Bureau of Criminal Investigation, Computer Crime Unit, forwarded two CyberTip reports indicated that a male suspect in the Lawrence County are had uploaded child pornography to the internet using Google related services in 2015.

“The images depict nude prepubescent females approximately aged 8 to 12 years old in sexualized positions,” the criminal complaint states.

The IP address was traced to Flaggs computer and upon further investigating Flagg was tracked down at a local coffee shop, where he was met by a state trooper and agreed to be questioned at a more private location.

Flagg stated that he did occasionally view adult pornography on his phone and the Kindle he had on him that he was using in the coffee shop, he further stated that he had seen child pornography in the past while viewing adult pornography and that he had viewed sexually illicit images of children under the age of 12.

Flagg claimed he had accidentally saved some of the images, later discovered them and subsequently deleted them and that it happened “months” prior and the last time he had viewed anything was “3 or 4 months ago”.

Flagg stated that it was “possible” that there is still child pornography images on his phone and tablet in his possession and that he is the only one who uses the devices.

Flagg reported that he obtained the images and videos through friends on the internet that invited him into internet communities containing links to the content and that he also distributed content to other individuals on the internet using Google.

He confirmed he had distributed approx. 20 images and when asked how many images he received from other people he stated “dozens.”

Flagg also admitted that he had saved images on a thumb drive which he indicated was in his pants pocket. He proceeded to give the thumb drive to the officer as well as the tablet and cellphone.

After obtaining a search warrant, 45 still images of sexually illicit photos of children were found on the thumb drive and 81 still images of illicit photos were found on the cell phone.