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WILKES-BARRE — A Wilkes-Barre man faces 100 counts of possession of child pornography after a tip from Twitter led to his arrest, according to police.

Ricky David Halliday Jr., 32, of Henry Street, was arrested Friday.

According to a criminal complaint:

A tip to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children about a Twitter user with the screen name alntnoneofyours was forwarded to Luzerne County detectives.

According to the tip, the Twitter user uploaded 39 images depicting minor females and possible child pornography and erotica.

The detectives traced the Twitter account to Halliday and interviewed him on March 24.

Halliday told police he uses two laptops, while his wife uses a desktop computer. He said he didn’t mean to upload images of child pornography. He admitted he collects videos of child pornography but not images. However, he also admitted to downloading the images.

Halliday told investigators he prefers to download and view young girls naked instead of them engaging in sexual acts. He said he prefers to view videos of girls that appear to be between the ages of 12 and 15, referring to them as “the forbidden fruit.”

He estimated he had 50 videos and images in a download folder on a peer-to-peer sharing network because he “hadn’t had time to delete them.”

He said that when he didn’t realize that he had uploaded any files to Twitter, but did admit to creating the account mentioned in the tip.

When asked is he had access Twitter from his smartphone, he admitted to using the phone to view and download child pornography.

Police found a Dropbox account Halliday used with folders labeled “prime jailbait” and “tributes.”

A forensic search of Halliday’s laptop computers found more than 40 videos of child pornography and hundreds of images of child sex acts; a hard drive contained more than 50 videos and 30 images; the Dropbox account yielded 15 videos and 15 images; and the phone search found five images of child pornography.

He was arraigned before Judge Thomas Malloy on 100 counts of child pornography, two counts of criminal use of a cellphone and one count of dissemination of child sex acts.

Halliday is currently in the Luzerne County Correctional Facility for lack of $75,000 straight bail. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m. April 13 in front of Malloy.

Halliday
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/web1_halliday.jpg.optimal.jpgHalliday

By Melanie Mizenko

[email protected]

Reach Melanie Mizenko at 570-991-6116 or on Twitter @TL_MMizenko