Authorities say man distributed

Authorities say man distributed child porn

WINCHESTER -- Authorities claim a Stephens City man distributed child pornography through file-sharing on the Internet in February.

A Frederick County Sheriff's Office investigator searched the 109 Crystal Lake Court home of Yuri Ernesto Abrego on Tuesday. Abrego has not been charged with any crime related to the search.

Investigator James Galbreath had sought the warrant, stating he had probable cause that Abrego had committed offenses related to distribution as well as production of child pornography, according to the documents filed in the Frederick County Circuit Court on Wednesday.

Fairfax County police detective Joseph J. Sorrentino sought the warrant to search the computers, which he states in the accompanying affidavit were used in the collection and distribution of child pornography.

Sorrentino states in the affidavit that, on Feb. 15, he investigated computers used to share child pornography while searching for offenders actively sharing such material within the commonwealth.

"While conducting this investigation, an off-the-shelf publicly available Gnutella client program was used to query the network for files indexed by a term known to be related to child pornography," Sorrentino states. "The network returned a list of files associated with this term, which is associated with child pornographic videos and images."

An Internet Protocol address was identified as "possessing and offering to share files for download with file names indicative of those used to identify child pornography," he states. Sorrentino traced the IP address to a computer that he then browsed and found more than 100 files, several dozen of which described children engaging in sexual activities, the affidavit states.

"A search of [Internet Crimes Against Children] records revealed numerous other instances where this IP address was identified by investigators around the world as participating in the receipt and distribution of child pornography," according to Sorrentino, who is assigned to the Child Exploitation Unit of the county's Criminal Investigations Bureau and is a member of the Northern Virginia/DC Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.

The investigator states he downloaded three files depicting children engaging in sexual activity.

Galbreath, who also works in the realm of cyber crimes involving children, seized two laptop computers and other items from Abrego's residence on Wednesday, the inventory states.