AUGUSTA — An Augusta man who is already a registered sex offender faces four new charges of possessing child pornography.
Ryan E. Bishop, 38, was arrested Tuesday morning. He remains in the Kennebec County jail in lieu of $25,000 bail after making an initial appearance via video on the charges at the Capital Judicial Center.
He is charged with four counts of possession of sexually explicit materials depicting children under 12.
All the charges are dated March 31, 2017, in Augusta.
The investigation by the Maine State Police Computer Crimes Unit began in late December 2016 when the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children passed on a CyberTip from Pinterest.
The affidavit by Trooper Niles Krech says investigators located “approximately 8,000 images of child pornography” and “over 10,000 child pornography files” on electronic items seized from Bishop’s apartment on March 31, 2017.
He said the children depicted in the images ranged from under age 1 to about 12 years old.
Niles said Bishop also was the subject of a 2011 investigation resulting from a prior CyberTip.
Niles said Bishop’s prior convictions order him to register as a sex offender until 2029, but Niles told that Bishop is not on the Maine Sex Offender Registry website because of the amount of time that has passed since his convictions.
Betty Adams — 621-5631
Twitter: @betadams
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