Social media led authorities to arrest an Arlington, Massachusetts, man on child pornography charges, according to the Attorney General's Office.
Twenty-seven-year-old Zachary Monte appeared in Cambridge District Court Friday to face child pornography charges. He plead not guilty.
After online sites Twitter and Tumblr reported an account user accessing child pornography to authorities, police arrested Monte Thursday night in the Arlington home he shares with his parents.
"He spoke with police. He admitted to a developing interest in child pornography; began about a year ago and has been evolving, I believe he referred to it as an interest in taboo pornography, including child pornography," Assistant Attorney General Nancy Rothstein said.
Rothstein says Monte also admitted to being in possession of child pornography.
"And he actually turned over his phone to the state police. They have looked through the phone and found significant number of images of children under the age of 18 being sexually abused," she said.
"He willingly spoke to police yesterday. He was completely cooperative. He was released on $10,000 bail," defense attorney Jonathan Spirn said.
Monte's defense attorney says he works as a plumber and has two years of college experience, and argued requests to raise bail to $20,000 and to set conditions, including a GPS monitoring device, are unnecessary. He said his client is not alleged to have tried contacting children at any point.
"As explained to the police, this was a taboo curiosity and I would suggest that is what this ultimately is," Spirn said.
