Shaler-area man arrested on child pornography charges
SHALER, Pa. (KDKA) - A Shaler man is facing several child pornography charges.
Andrew Britsch, 32, has been charged with five counts of sexual abuse of children - possession of child pornography and one count of criminal use of a communication facility.
According to the criminal complaint, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received a CyberTip that a user named "creepjoe" uploaded "two files of suspected child pornography" to the social messaging platform Kik.
The user's IP address was traced to Britsch's house in Shaler.
A search warrant was executed on the house, and Britsch was taken to the basement to be interviewed. During the interview, Britsch admitted to viewing the suspected child pornography, according to the complaint.
Documents noted that there were "several instances of Britsch joining messaging groups that focus[ed] on trading child pornography."
An iPhone 13 recovered from the house during the search contained "61 videos of child pornography and 117 images of child pornography," the criminal complaint added.
Detectives said five of the files had evidentiary value.
Britsch surrendered to detectives from the Allegheny County Sherriff's Office on Friday at the magistrate's office in Shaler. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for Sept. 26.