Concord Sex Offender Faces Child Pornography Charges

The Concord Police Department has arrested a local sex offender on child pornography charges.

Christopher M. Merchant, 47, of Hanover Street in Concord, was arrested on 15 felony counts of child pornography on July 29. He will be arraigned later today.

According to a press statement from Lt. Timothy O’Malley, the commander of the criminal investigations unit, the charges against Merchant include two separate tracks of alleged allegations and investigations, as well as other situations in New Hampshire.

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Concord Police initiated work on the case in January 2013, after hearing allegations from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) that a local man might be communicating with underage boys in chat rooms and a social media site.

Police tracked down the juvenile and later, Merchant, who was a registered sex offender, after they allegedly matched his photo to the social media site.

While in the process of gathering information about Merchant, New Boston police contacted Concord police about a run-in with Merchant they had in March 2013.

According to investigators in that town, officers were called to a burglary alarm at a local business and found Merchant inside a vehicle with a 16-year-old boy. The teen later admitted to meeting Merchant online. Merchant was arrested on a license prohibition charge (16 is the age of consent in New Hampshire).

Police also learned later on that Merchant was reportedly found with another 16-year-old boy in Manchester in February 2013. The Manchester officer reportedly found the two in a vehicle.

“Both subjects were fully-clothed, however their pants were on backwards,” O’Malley stated. “The juvenile later reported that he had met Merchant via a social networking site.”

During the course of the investigation, detectives learned that Merchant was using the screen name “Justin Kray” and allegedly stated he was 18. Merchant, however, failed to register any of his online registrations (emails, IM screen names, social website screen names, etc.) with police as part of his sex offender registration compliance requirements.

In September 2013, police made a move on Merchant, who had been previously convicted of assault in 2005. They requested and received a search warrant for his home and reportedly recovered computers and “electronic media evidence.” He was arrested and charged with registration of online identifiers, a felony, registration of online identifiers, and four duty to report violations, two of them felonies. Earlier this week, he was convicted of the charges.

During the last nine months, police have been combing through the computer evidence from Merchant’s home and allegedly “recovered images of child pornography,” specifically, “photos of male juveniles in various sexual poses.”

O’Malley said police reached out to the court this week to let it know they were filing more charges against Merchant based on the evidence allegedly found on his computers during the course of the investigation.

“We have a limited number of employees working computer crimes but they have a large a case load,” O’Malley said, when asked about the time delay between the initial arrest and now. “It’s a time consuming process.”

Police are asking the public that if they have had any dealings with Merchant or have information that would like to submit to the police, call the department directly at 603-225-8600 or submit information with the Concord Regional Crimeline at 603-226-3100.