Dubois man charged with child porn, court documents alleges he shared and sought out explicit content
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DUBOIS — A 31-year-old Dubois man is facing multiple felony counts related to child pornography after an Idaho task force discovered the man sought explicit images from other users on the social media app, Kik.
Austin Reed Mickelsen, 31, has been charged with five felony counts of possessing child porn and five felony counts of distributing that explicit content.
If he is found guilty, he faces up to 200 years in prison.
According to court documents, Idaho’s Internet Crimes Against Children task force began investigating five cybertips submitted via Kik.
The cybertip included four emails, all starting with the same name, which were associated with a single email.
The document states that the children shown in the explicit content were between 6 and 14 years old and included boys and girls being sexually abused.
According to Mickelsen’s criminal complaint, many of the charges the 31-year-old faces involve him being accused of possessing and distributing each of the videos found.
While the documents state that there are around 50 files of child porn that were discussed from the cybertip, five were discussed and sent to various users on Kik.
Through ICAC’s investigation, it was determined that Mickelsen used the Kik accounts, and his information was obtained to find his residence in Dubois.
A search warrant was obtained, and Mickelsen was interviewed by detectives. The document states that Mickelsen admitted to being the owner of the email addresses listed and that he sought out the explicit content from other Kik users.
Mickelsen is scheduled to be arraigned in district court at 1:30 p.m. on March 25 before District Judge Brendon Taylor.
Though Mickelsen has been charged with these crimes, it does not necessarily mean he committed them. Everyone is presumed innocent until they are proven guilty.