Man arrested for CSAM allegedly claimed he was collecting it as evidence to give to police
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REXBURG — A 22-year-old man who was arrested for allegedly possessing child sexual abuse material reportedly told police he was collecting it in order to give it to them.
Dakoda Beattie is charged with 12 felonies for possession of child sexually exploitative material, and three felonies for visual representations of the sexual abuse of a minor.
Beattie has not yet hired or been appointed an attorney, according to court filings.
According to court documents, a Madison County Sheriff’s deputy received a CyberTip from Synchronoss Technologies Inc. on Sept. 1, reporting child sexual abuse material being detected on a cell phone in Rexburg.
Deputies were able to trace it to a man identified as Beattie, using his IP address.
The file reportedly contained a nearly 17-minute video depicting multiple instances of children between the ages of two and 14 years old being raped and sexually assaulted.
On Sept. 2, the deputy was notified of an additional CyberTip related to the same case. This file allegedly contained a five-minute video of multiple screen recordings. depicting children between the ages of one and nine years old being raped and sexually assaulted.
On Sept. 15, deputies contacted Beattie at his home in Rexburg, detained him and brought him in for an interview at the Madison County Sheriff’s Office.
According to the deputy’s report, Beattie had a cell phone in his front shirt pocket. When deputies asked about it, he claimed it was his six-year-old daughter’s phone.
He then reportedly told deputies that he would “come across links on Instagram and it would automatically download” to his phone. When deputies asked how this would happen, he stated that his daughter would do it.
Beattie claimed his daughter would “download videos and pictures of adults and minors.” When asked if the minors were clothed or nude in the images and videos, he allegedly stated, “sometimes.”
Deputies then asked about the screen recordings of CSAM, and he again claimed that his daughter had screen-recorded illegal pornography on his phone.
Beattie then reportedly claimed that he saved these videos and links to his phone because he was “gathering evidence to turn over to law enforcement.”
Deputies then showed Beattie two screenshots from his phone that contained links to CSAM and asked whether they looked familiar, to which Beattie reportedly confirmed they did. Beattie then allegedly told deputies he “wanted these links to get taken down and that’s why he viewed them.”
He also reportedly stated that “nobody does anything about this,” referring to CSAM.
When asked how many screen recordings and downloads he made to his phone, court records say Beattie replies, “several, several, tons.” He then requested an attorney. According to the deputy report, additional CSAM was found in Beattie’s photo gallery.
“Due to the overwhelming amount of material located, I am unable to get a complete count at this time,” says the deputy report.
On Sept. 16, during further investigation, the deputy reportedly found an AI-generated image of a local high school student’s graduation invitation on Beattie’s phone.
The image reportedly showed AI-manipulated versions of the invitation, showing the girl in sexual positions.
Beattie was arrested and booked into the Madison County Jail the next day on a $250,000 bond.
He is expected to appear for a preliminary hearing on Sept. 30. If convicted, he could face up to life in prison.
Though Beattie has been charged with these crimes, it does not necessarily mean he committed them. Everyone is presumed innocent until they are proven guilty.