More details have been released regarding the arrest of 26-year-old Joel Laban Belcher, the Fulton County man arrested and charged with 14 counts of distributing, possessing or viewing matter sexually depicting a child, a class C felony.
According to an affidavit filed in the Fulton County Courthouse, the recent charges stem from an incident Nov. 30, 2021 after authorities received a cybertip from the National Center for Mission and Exploited Children.
The report indicated several videos from a user of a social media and e-mail account belonging to Belcher had been uploaded and contained material that contained Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM).
The videos were provided to authorities and depicted per-pubescent females engaged in highly inappropriate activities of a sexual nature.
The IP address associated with the account registered to be from Fulton County as well.
Through various methods available to law enforcement, it was discovered Belcher and another individual in another state.
On Jan. 13, authorities obtained a search warrant for a Google account and other social media accounts.
A few days later, access was granted for authorities to review conversations and other data which had been exchanged between Belcher and another individual.
Part of the “chat” included discussion of “trading pictures”. Four images and 10 videos of female children being sexually abused by adult males were also found.
Lauren is a an award-winning journalist who decided after 10 years of newspaper experience to venture out. Hallmark Times was born.
