MILFORD, PA — Pike County District Attorney Ray Tonkin announced several arrests of persons charged with child pornography offenses in Pike County.  A partnership between the Pike County District Attorney’s Office with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force has shown that together officials can fight to bring child predators to justice.  Recently charged with Sexual Abuse of Children, which is the official crime defining child pornography offenses in Pennsylvania are Jason Hook, age 34, of Dingmans Ferry, Eric Davis, age 38, of Shohola, Matthew Kidd, age 26, of Matamoras, and Dennis Kelly, age 74, of Milford.

Each investigation began with a cyber tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that a person had been interacting with apparent child pornography online.  From there, detectives from the Pike County District Attorney’s Office Criminal Investigation Division began to obtain subpoenas and search warrants to investigate the source of where the child pornography is being possessed and disseminated in Pike County.  Then comes the final step of bringing a search warrant to the house where the person is to extract information from a variety of electronic devices, from computers to cell phones to other storage drives.  Once this is complete an arrest can be made.

Tonkin noted that if the suspect has access to any minor children the children can be interviewed at Dickson House Children’s Advocacy Center by trained forensic interviewers to determine if the child has had been molested.  In one case, the cyber tip investigation led to criminal charges for sexually abusing a child.  

After a full investigation, Jason Hook was charged with charges of rape of a child, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, statutory sexual assault, aggravated indecent assault, corruption of minors, and unlawful contact or communication with a minor, all felony offenses.

Tonkin said, “My office is committed to working with all partners to arrest, convict and remove from our community child predators who prey on the most vulnerable members of our society, or children. This work, along with our work at Dickson House, is all work to protect the children of our community.”