Sussex County man arrested on child pornography charges related to soliciting young girls for naked photos
NORRISTOWN, PA (Montgomery County) — A Sussex County man has been arrested on felony charges related to child pornography after contacting two young sisters in Montgomery County to solicit explicit photos, according to Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin R. Steele.
The investigation began when the Montgomery County Detective Bureau was contacted on April 20 by a father of two girls, ages 11 and 12, who had been initially solicited through TikTok direct messages, then via text messages to send naked images back to the texter, Steele said.
The communications with the sisters, who live in Montgomery County, occurred between April 17 and April 20, 2022. The father learned of these communications when one of the girls disclosed to him that she had sent a naked picture of herself to the texter, who was later identified as Ryan Corcoran, 26, of Andover, then both girls began receiving texts from another phone number, who was purported to be the 14-year-old sister of the original texter but was actually the defendant in both cases. Both girls were sent naked photos and were solicited to provide naked photos of themselves, Steele said.
The investigation traced the texting phone number to Ad Hoc Labs, which provides a service designed to conceal a true phone number, Steele said.
Detectives served a subpoena to obtain the user data related to the phone number originally used to set up the account with Ad Hoc Labs, then traced the actual phone number and the corresponding IP address for the computer used to a Verizon wireless business account registered to Corcoran’s father, Michael Corcoran, Steele said.
A search warrant was served on the home, and Ryan Corcoran confirmed to detectives that the cellphone number was his. A download of the defendant’s cellphone found both girls’ phone numbers stored as contacts as well as the original naked image sent by one of the girls. A review of the phone found the text messages between Ryan Corcoran and the girls, Steele said.
“This defendant was reaching out to random young girls on a social media platform and soliciting them to take photos of themselves in sexually explicit poses, clearly creating child pornographic images,” Steele said. “This is another example that there are predators out there on the internet trying to take advantage of young innocent children. Parents need to be ever-vigilant to protect their children from these predators.”
The Montgomery County Detectives were assisted in this investigation by Homeland Security Investigations, the New Jersey Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force and the Sussex County Prosecutors Office.
The defendant was arrested on felony charges of child pornography, Unlawful Contact with a Minor, Corruption of Minors and Criminal Use of a Communications Facility.
Corcoran was arraigned on June 13, before Magisterial District Judge Maureen C. Coggins, who set bail at $50,000 cash with additional provisions of no internet usage and no contact with minors. He posted bail and was released, Steele siad.
A preliminary hearing is set for 1:30 p.m., June 27 before Judge Coggins.
