Delco Man Used Twitch To Solicit Child Pornography: DA

UPPER DARBY, PA — A Delaware County man is facing 100 child pornography-related charges after using the popular streaming service Twitch to solicit sexually explicit photos from young boys, according to authorities.

Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer said Geoffrey Christopher Hines, 33, of Upper Darby, was arrested and charged with 100 felony counts of possessing and producing child pornography.

Hines has been charged with sexual abuse of children through manufacturing and attempted manufacturing of child pornography; sexual abuse of children through possession of child pornography; and criminal use of a communication facility.

Hines was arrested following an investigation launched back in July 2019

In July last year, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children got numerous reports from the live-streaming service Twitch Interactive.

Twitch alerted center to a user who communicated with more than 50 children, asking them to expose their genitals and send sexually explicit content to the user.

Twitch also provided the center with multiple videos containing similarly explicit content that had been created by the same user.

Twitch identified the communications as coming from two IP addresses, both of which were traced back to the suspect’s Upper Darby address.

The suspect targeted boys between 9 and 12 years old in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

To date, law enforcement has identified ten of the more than 50 potential victims, and the children have confirmed to investigators that the suspect lured them into exposing their genitals in return for gift cards.

Based upon the information provided by the center, on May 18, county detectives obtained a warrant to search Hines's Upper Darby property.

Delaware County, Upper Darby, Tinicum authorities executed the warrant the following day.

Hines was home at the time of the search and confirmed that he used Twitch to communicate with the young boys, persuade them into removing their clothes, display their genitals, and, in some cases, perform sex acts on live streams.

Multiple electronic devices were retrieved from the Hines's home. Preliminary forensic examination of those devices found more than 25 videos showing boys who complied with the suspect’s requests by removing their clothes.

Detectives also identified hundreds of additional video recordings depicting minor male children being manipulated into removing their clothes.

Hines is being held at the George W. Hill Correctional Facility on $500,000 cash bail. No date has been set for the preliminary hearing.