Weber County father booked for uploading, possession of child porn
Aug 10, 2022, 7:13 PM
A Utah County man who police believe was under the influence of drugs is facing criminal charges for allegedly flooding an Orem hotel. (File image, Gustavo Caballero, Getty Images for UNITAS)
(File image, Gustavo Caballero, Getty Images for UNITAS)
OGDEN, Utah — A report from a tip line led to the arrest of a Weber County man Tuesday.
According to court documents, authorities found that 31-year-old Michael Welch was uploading child porn and sharing it with an online group.
An electronic service provider filed a Cyber Tipline Report to the Missing and Exploited Children on the alleged upload of child porn and provided Welch’s email address and username, “mikewelch.”
The provider said the uploads happened on April 15, May 8, and May 16. Investigators ran a quarry on the IP address used to upload the possible child porn files and found the user was in Ogden.
On July 11, authorities found an uploaded file from the IP address containing child porn of young children performing sexual acts on each other. That file was uploaded that day.
The next day, authorities got a warrant for the subscriber info of the Ogden IP address and confirmed it was the same user uploading the child porn files.
On Aug. 4, the United States Postal Inspectors Service reported mail being delivered to a Roy, Utah, address with Welch’s information along with others. Then on the 9th, Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force agents searched the Roy home, where Welch was interviewed.
Welch confessed to authorities of downloading and uploading “several videos” containing child porn, according to arresting documents. During the search, authorities found devices owned by Welch containing child porn. Authorities found at least thirty child porn videos and a “copious amount” of videos that were not viewed.
The arresting documents mention that Welch has a prior case involving a person he is alleged to have victimized when she was 3 and is accused of having photos of when she was 5.
Authorities requested that Welch be held without bail since if free he would be in close proximity to other potential victims. Welch was booked on suspicion of 10 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor.
