Dale
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WILKES-BARRE — A Wilkes-Barre man is jailed without bail on allegations he downloaded and possessed hundreds of images of child sexual abuse materials, including taking lewd pictures of a girl known to him.
Joseph Henry Dale, 25, was arrested by Luzerne County detectives and West Hazleton police, members of the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and state police Northeast Computer Crime Unit, when they served a search warrant at his West River Street apartment Tuesday night.
Court records say Dale, when detectives knocked on the door announcing their presence, attempted to delete lewd images from his cellular phone, which he later hid under a couch.
Spike, a canine trained in detecting electronics, located the cellular phone and other electronic devices from Dale’s bedroom, court records say.
A preliminary examination of Dale’s cellular phone allegedly recovered more than 200 images and video files depicting child sexual abuse materials.
Images recovered from Dale’s cellular phone included a nude pictures of a girl known to him, court records say.
According to court records Dale admitted to taking the pictures of the girl while she was in a bathtub, or he would have the girl in various positions.
Dale told detectives he has viewed child sexual abuse materials for self gratification for one to two years, using special word searches to find the images, court records say.
Court records say Dale began deleting images from his cellular phone in anticipation of being questioned by authorities when a social media app he used became locked.
Dale was arraigned Wednesday by District Judge Joseph Spagnuolo in Central Court on 200 counts of child pornography, 48 counts of dissemination of children engaged in sex acts and two counts of criminal use of communication facility. Spagnuolo denied bail for Dale, deeming him a danger to the community.
Wilkes-Barre police assisted in the investigation.