Gainesville man arrested on nine child pornography charges
Press release from Gainesville Police Department
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – On Wednesday, July 26, 2023, the Gainesville Police Department Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Division, along with the assistance of GPD SWAT, served a search warrant at 3135 SW 42nd Place. The investigation was prompted after GPD received a Cyber Tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). The Cyber Tip indicated that a cloud storage service provider determined a user uploaded and stored child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on their platform.
Further investigation by Detective Montague, of the Gainesville Police Department, revealed that the images were uploaded from a residence and account related to Matthew Johnson (W/M, 09-28-1998). During a Post-Miranda interview, Johnson initially stated that he often consumes alcohol to the point that he doesn’t remember what he’s done for periods of time (blacked out). When asked if it would have been normal to view and/or download child sexual abuse material when intoxicated, Johnson stated that he was not sure and that he could not remember. Johnson eventually admitted that he did remember the images in question and did recall saving them. Johnson added that when he was seventeen or eighteen, while browsing the dark web, he came across child sexual abuse material and since then he has periodically looked at the illegal content.
A subsequent offsite search of Johnson’s electronic devices revealed the child sexual abuse imagery provided in the Cyber Tip.
On Tuesday, August 1, 2023, Johnson was arrested for 9 counts of possession of child pornography and one count of Unlawful use of a Two-Way Communications Device.
The Gainesville Police Department wants parents to be aware that children are being solicited and exploited through social networking and messaging apps. We encourage parents to have age-appropriate conversations with their children about the dangers of the internet. Please be vigilant and aware of any social networking platforms your children may access. If you have any questions about this incident, please contact GPD Detective Donna Montague at 352-393-7730 or montagueda@cityofgainesville.org.
Parents can also find resources at the NCMEC website: https://www.missingkids.org/HOME
Sick!!
These type of people need to be put in prison and forgotten about they will always be a threat to our children
Detective Montague is awesome!
A Chester is born. Already has the cheesy porn mustache and pasty Gacy look going for him. Blaming your crimes on substance abuse and underage judgement is so typical of these types of sickos.