TEXARKANA -- An investigation into child pornography production that resulted in federal charges for a Lockesburg man began in another country.
In April 2014, Canadian officials received a report from the National Child Exploitation Coordination Centre that a resident of the York Region, near Toronto, had uploaded child pornography, according to a federal search warrant affidavit for Nathan Karl Thomas' residence on Provo Road in Lockesburg, which was unsealed earlier this month. Investigators in Canada determined that a youth in Canada was sending and receiving questionable images using the social networking application Omegle.
Investigators took over the youth's account on chatzy.com and began identifying people who were posting and downloading images of child pornography. The investigation led to a Texarkana, Texas, address and notification of U.S. officials. Some of the images discovered involved adult men and women with children as young as 3. Eventually, the investigation led to the development of Nathan Karl Thomas, 21, of Lockesburg as a suspect in the case.
A 15-year-old girl in Texarkana identified during the investigation was interviewed at the Children's Advocacy Center in Texarkana. The girl admitted to using Omegle and reportedly described being sexually assaulted by Thomas repeatedly.
Thomas reportedly told the teen girl that he preferred to use phones to send and receive child pornography because it is harder to track images sent via cellphone than those transmitted using a computer.
The teen reportedly told an interviewer at the Children's Advocacy Center that Thomas repeatedly picked her up at her home and drove her to Lockesburg, where he would sexually assault her.
A search of an inactive cellphone in the teen's possession reportedly contained text conversations between her and Thomas, during which he used the screen name Pr0metheus8.
Thomas was arrested in December on a federal criminal complaint. In January, a federal grand jury handed down a five-count indictment for Thomas in the Texarkana division of the Western District of Arkansas. The indictment accuses Thomas of creating child pornography with the girl, who he knew was a youth.
Thomas entered not guilty pleas to the charges at a hearing Jan. 30 before U.S. Magistrate Judge Barry Bryant in Texarkana's downtown federal building. The case is set for trial in June before U.S. District Judge Susan Hickey.
Metro on 03/23/2015