Further charges filed in Reading child pornography case

Additional charges have been filed against a Reading man who was arrested in May and accused of possession of child pornography, the Berks County District Attorney's Office announced Friday.

Kristopher W. Tanner, 28, of South Seventh Street was initially charged with sexual abuse of a child in connection with possession of child pornography and criminal use of a communications facility.

The new charges include sexual abuse of children through the production of child pornography, indecent touching, criminal use of a communication facility, corruption of minors and exhibitionism.

The investigators described the incident as follows:

In October 2023, authorities were notified by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that several suspected child pornography files were being shared on the social media platform Snapchat using a specific IP address linked to Tanner.

In March 2024, county investigators executed a search warrant at Tanner's apartment. During the search, two cell phones and a laptop were seized.

As a result of a forensic analysis by the Forensic Services Division of the Berks County District Attorney's Office, numerous digital files containing child pornography were seized on one of the devices.

Since Tanner's arrest, investigators reviewed the contents of a cell phone seized from the defendant and found digital videos containing child sexual abuse. They determined that Tanner was seen in the videos and that they were recorded in his residence. The child in the video told investigators that they had spent time at the defendant's residence and that the defendant had acted sexually inappropriately in their presence.

Tanner was arraigned Thursday before District Judge Carissa L. Johnson and remanded to the Berks County Jail on $150,000 bail.

Originally published: August 16, 2024 at 3:48 pm