Gainesville man charged with possessing child pornography, engaging in sexually explicit chats with a minor, and sending explicit photos to a minor
Staff report
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Stephen C. Young, 57, was arrested yesterday and charged with four felonies related to child pornography.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received a CyberTip from Snapchat on October 1, 2023, related to child sexual abuse material being shared on the platform. Gainesville Police Department (GPD) investigated the tip and transmitted the probable cause to the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office, which made the arrest.
A GPD detective obtained a search warrant for the Snapchat account and received ownership information for the login IP address and phone number; the phone number and internet accounts were reportedly in Young’s name. The Snapchat account was under a different name and birthdate, but the phone number was reportedly Young’s phone number.
The detective found a second video that was shared between the suspect’s Snapchat account and a second Snapchat account. During a chat with the second account, the suspect’s account reportedly talked about wanting to rape a juvenile family member and that he’d first become attracted to her when she was 9 or 10.
The suspect’s account also communicated with a Snapchat account that the suspect identified as being 12 years old. The suspect’s account reportedly sent nude, sexually explicit pictures and videos to that account and received three sexually explicit videos of a pubescent female.
Chats between the suspect account and the young girl’s account talked about being “sneaky” and what he wanted her to do for him sexually. The young girl’s account also offered her “cousin,” who she said was 8 years old, and she sent a picture. The suspect’s account later added the supposed 8-year-old’s account on Snapchat.
The registration IP address for the suspect Snapchat account was identified as belonging to the UF Computing & Networking Services building on Stadium Road.
The detective learned that Young had previously been identified as chatting with an undercover police officer in 2019; he reportedly said he was looking for “young girls to have fun with.” He also reportedly discussed a juvenile family member and seemed to offer her to the undercover officer.
On March 6, a search warrant was executed at Young’s home; he reportedly admitted to creating the suspect’s Snapchat account. He reportedly said he didn’t remember sending any child sexual abuse material, but he regularly receives it from other people. He reportedly confirmed that some of the videos were taken while he was at work.
Young reportedly admitted to engaging in sexually explicit chat with someone who identified herself as being nine years old and admitted sending her nude pictures.
A search of Young’s cell phone reportedly produced chats in which he solicited, received, and distributed child sexual abuse material, and pictures of his juvenile family member were also reportedly distributed to others.
Young has been charged with production of child pornography for directing the 12-year-old to produce sexually explicit videos, distribution of child pornography for sending a child sexual abuse video to the second Snapchat account, transmission of harmful materials to minors for sending nude pictures and videos of himself to the 12-year-old account, and possession of child pornography.
Young has no local criminal history. Judge Susan Miller-Jones set bail at $2 million.
Articles about arrests are based on reports from law enforcement agencies. The charges listed are taken from the arrest report and/or court records and are only accusations. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
We need MUCH stricter punishments for criminals that hurt other people, that have a victim, and damage property.
The Legislature and Governor made Child Rape a death sentence again in the ’23 legislative cycle. 12 and under, death – with only 10 jurors needed to consent! No bleeding heart holdout can stop justice anymore for these pervs.
Another example of a Pedo who has no business in the community. He has been acting like this since 2019. Simple cure and only cure is a permanent lobotomy. He will never rid himself of the pedo virus. I will gladly donate the rusty drill bit.
Put this POS in a cell for the rest of his life these bastards can’t be reformed
Was he employed by UF at the time? There could be a job opening there real soon, if Pres. B. Sasse has his way…
But watch later and see if a jury convicts him, and a later judge lets him go for $5000 bond 😡💩👹🤡🍦🍦
He was utilizing the UF guest wifi most likely. It is a free public wireless network that covers most of the campus including outdoors.
No.
There is no UF Computing & Networking Services building on stadium road. did you mean Bryant Space Science Center?
From the arrest report:
On Wednesday, February 21, 2024, Detective Montague received the following subscriber information for the
suspect’s registration IP address 184.185.222.98:
UF Computing &Networking Services
1772 Stadium Rd, Bldg 38
Gainesville, FL 32611
OK yeah it is the Bryant Space Science Center thank you Jennifer.
Hard to believe.
FluSH IT!
Why is Gainesville laden with pedophiles? UF should do a study. Round them all up and have public executions. Be a lot less of these monsters.
dang Steve used to be my boss about 24 years ago and he was into grown women and if I remember correctly had a daughter a stand up clean cut guy. what happened in those years to turn him into a monster like this.