LOCAL NEWS

Vernal man arrested on over 20 charges related to child sex abuse and pornography distribution

Jul 30, 2024, 4:49 PM

FILE PHOTO (Uintah County Sheriff's Office/Facebook)...

FILE PHOTO (Uintah County Sheriff's Office/Facebook)

(Uintah County Sheriff's Office/Facebook)

SALT LAKE CITY — A Vernal resident has been arrested after a police investigation yielded hundreds of images and videos of child pornography.

Justin McKay Anthony, 43, was booked into the Uintah County Jail on suspicion of nearly two dozen crimes, including sexual exploitation of a minor and distribution of pornography.

According to a booking affidavit, the investigation began on May 7, when the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children submitted a referral alleging that someone uploaded a “child exploitation video.” An Electronic Service Provider then provided subscriber data to investigators, locating the files’ origins to Vernal.

During the investigation, multiple IP addresses were located as distributors of the child sex abuse material, one of which belonged to a device in Colorado Springs, according to the affidavit.

Colorado Springs police officers searched for Anthony, leading to his residence in Vernal.

According to the document, investigators also concluded that Anthony was familiar with technology, including network structure, cybersecurity, and Wi-Fi engineering, allowing him to change his IP address.

According to the affidavit, a search warrant was executed on June 5, yielding over 600 files of pornographic material. Of those 603 files, 64 contained child sex abuse material, 225 contained videos and still images of various genres including bestiality, and about 295 files were homemade productions of Anthony’s.

During an arrest and interrogation on July 25, Anthony admitted to sending, receiving, and downloading child sex abuse material, claiming that he was able to disassociate himself from the videos, stating “They’re all over, I’m sure you’ve seen them before,” according to the document.

Juston McKay Anthony was booked into the Uintah County jail on 23 charges, including:

  • three counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, a first-degree felony;
  • ten counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, a second-degree felony, and;
  • ten counts of distribution of pornography by an adult, a third-degree felony.

If you have experienced sexual violence, you can access help and resources by calling Utah’s 24-hour Sexual Violence Help Line at 1-801-736-4356 (English) or 1-801-924-0860 (Spanish). You can also call the Rape Recovery Center office line during office hours at 801-467-7282 or the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673 for free, confidential counseling.

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Vernal man arrested on over 20 charges related to child sex abuse and pornography distribution