The Florida Attorney General announced serious charges against a UCF student.
21-year-old Joshua Smith, a student at University of Central Florida in Orlando, faces serious charges after an investigation was launched by the UCF Police Department because of a cyber tip.
“The possession, sale, and trade of child sexual abuse material is vile,” said Attorney General James Uthmeier. “These are not victimless crimes, and our prosecutors are cracking down on this abhorrent behavior by seeking the strongest sentences allowed under Florida law.”
The Florida Attorney General said Joshua Smith faces 18 counts of possession of child pornography, one count of transmission of child pornography, and 1 count of solicitation of a child for unlawful sexual conduct via a computer device.
The investigation into Smith was launched when the University of Central Florida Police Department received a cyber tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) that Smith was soliciting and downloading CSAM via his Kik accounts.
Smith was arrested and a forensic extraction of his cellular device revealed multiple files of extremely graphic CSAM, including images and videos depicting the sexual abuse of infants. A warrant was executed to obtain information on all of the Kik accounts associated with the defendant, which led investigators to discover additional files of CSAM, as well as communications in which Smith was attempting to solicit minors for sex acts and the purchase and trade of CSAM.
If convicted as charged, Smith faces up to 280 years in the Florida Department of Corrections. This Central Florida case will be prosecuted Senior Assistant Statewide Prosecutor Lauryn Day in the Ninth Judicial Circuit of Florida.
