West Hartford Man Charged with Possession of Child Pornography

A West Hartford man has been charged with possession of child pornography by the state’s Police Computer Crimes Unit.

Michael Thomas, 51, of 9 Hawthorne Road, was arrested on a warrant Friday and charged with first-degree possession of child pornography.

The investigation started after state police received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) indicating that images of suspected child pornography were uploaded to cloud storage, according to police.

Police said the activity was traced back to the Thomas’ residence in West Hartford.

Authorities executed a search and seizure warrant at the Thomas residence on March 25 and seized computers and computer related equipment.

Police said examinations of the seized evidence were conducted and files of suspected child pornography were located.

Thomas was held on a $750,000 cash/surety bond. He was scheduled to appear in court Friday.