Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin R. Steele, Abington Township Police Chief Patrick Molloy and the Pennsylvania Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force announce the arrest of Scott Neff, 42, of North Wales, for felony charges related to allegedly distributing and possessing child pornography.

In October 2018, an Abington Township Police Detective with the ICAC Task Force was conducting an Internet investigation to identify people possessing and sharing child pornography. The investigation located a computer on a file sharing network that was specifically configured to anonymously share files with others. When the detective directly connected to this computer, he received six video files. The files were downloaded between Oct. 13 and Oct. 31, 2018, and upon review, were determined to depict children under the age of 18 engaged in sexual acts and/or sexually explicit poses.

The investigation traced the computer to a residence in North Wales, where the defendant lives. A search warrant was executed on Dec. 12, 2018, and a Lenovo laptop was seized. A forensic examination of the laptop found 65 still images and 78 video files that were determined to be child pornography.

Neff was arrested on March 3, 2019 on an arrest warrant and charged with more than 100 felony counts of distributing and possessing child pornography, as well as criminal use of a communications facility. He was arraigned before Magisterial District Judge Patricia Zaffarano, who set bail at $100,000 cash. He was also ordered to have no unsupervised contact with children and no Internet usage. The defendant was unable to post bail and was remanded to the Montgomery County Correctional Facility. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for 11:30 a.m., March 27, 2019, before Magisterial District Judge Suzan Leonard.

Major Crimes Detectives of the Montgomery County Detective Bureau, along with specially trained and sworn detectives from police departments in Montgomery County, routinely work with the ICAC Task Force to protect children from Internet predators by aggressively and proactively investigating Internet crimes that exploit children.

The case will be prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Bridget Gallagher.