Palmetto man charged with child porn possession. Images showed girls as young as 3, police say

An 18-year-old Palmetto man is facing 24 felony counts of child pornography possession, with images of girls as young as 3, according to the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office.

Detectives received a tip in June from the National Center of Missing and Exploited Children that images of child porn were being downloaded on a local IP address.

According to the arrest warrant issued Aug. 20, the investigation led detectives to William Brandon Warrell.

Detectives say the images reviewed on Warrell’s devices during the investigation showed young girls as young as 3 years old, with some of the images showing children being sexually abused by adult men.

Investigators initially made contact with Warrell in June where Warrell said the images were included in a zip file of a movie he was downloading and that he immediately deleted them, according to the warrant.

Detectives said they learned through the course of a forensic examination of Warrell’s devices that they contained up to 1,500 images of child porn and that the images were downloaded at various times outside of the zip file timeline Warrell claimed.

Warrell later admitted to detectives that he downloaded the images and moved them to various files, according to the warrant. Detectives said they additionally found software designed to prevent law enforcement from conducting a forensic examination.

According to the warrant, obtained Thursday through a public records request, Warrell was arrested Aug. 20 and charged. Warrell was booked into the Manatee County jail but was released the same day after posting bonds totaling $60,000.

This story was originally published August 26, 2021 at 9:47 AM.