VERO BEACH – A 21-year-old man is facing 41 counts in Vero Beach of possessing and promoting images showing sexual conduct by a child.
It started with a tip from internet file hosting company Dropbox, Inc. that led investigators to the Vero Beach man, according to an arrest report.
Kristian Svenkerud admitted to viewing child pornography on his cell phone to Indian River County Sheriff’s Office detectives.
Svenkerud told authorities he downloaded the videos from the Internet and from trading on child pornography sites, according to the lead detective in the case.
Svenkerud’s laptop had 30 videos of child pornography containing 41 child victims.
The child victims are between 3 and 14-years-old, according to law enforcement.
Svenkerud said he’s been watching videos of males between the ages of 8 and 10-years-old performing sex acts since he was 16-years-old, the report states.
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Detectives searched Svenkerud’s phone, but did not find any child pornography.
Investigators did find screen shots of messages of Svenkerud sending a link to his Dropbox account to several people.
One screenshot revealed a chat between Svenkerud and someone claiming to be 13-years-old, according to an investigator.
The internet file hosting company initially reported Svenkerud to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children after disabling his account.
Investigators say they were able to trace the account back to Svenkerud’s home in Vero Beach.
According to the report, Svenkerud told detectives that he probably should “seek professional help for his urges towards children,” and said that he never touched a child in a sexual manner.
Svenkerud was arrested and transported to the Indian River County Jail on $410,000 bond.
