fleshploitation: Man allegedly downloaded child porn to cell phone

Child porn case alleges offender used cell phone.

BANGOR - A convicted sex offender living in Houlton appears to be the first person in the state to face federal charges for using his cell phone to possess child pornography.

Joshua Dunston, 27, owned three different cell phone models between April and September 2005, according to court documents. He allegedly used his T-Mobile account to download child pornography onto his cell phone.

Dunston also allegedly posted 30 photos that appeared to depict the sexual exploitation of children to a personal Web page that T-Mobile allows subscribers to maintain.

The pictures are described in court documents as "depict[ing] pre-pubescent children engaged in sexual acts with adults" and "naked pre-pubescent children in sexually suggestive and exploitive positions."

Dunston also allegedly posted pornographic photographs of himself to the Web site using his cell phone.

A T-Mobile employee discovered the images last summer in a routine audit of customer accounts. The company notified federal law enforcement officials.

Dunston, who last year was a student at the University of Maine at Presque Isle, used computers at the campus Outreach Center to access his T-Mobile Web page, according to court documents. UMPI officials in December cooperated with investigators, giving them the hard drives from the computers Dunston used and surveillance video of him at the center.

The man is not a student at UMPI this semester, a university spokesman said Tuesday.

On the hard drives, investigators found Internet links saved by Dunston that included "Child sex murders and condoned Internet kiddy porn," "excited angels," "free Lolitas gallery" and others.

Some of the children depicted in the images have been identified by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, according to court documents.

Statistics on the number of prosecutions for obtaining child pornography using a cell phone were not available Tuesday. A Canadian expert in October warned that child pornographers were going high-tech.

"Everything's going to be in the size of a [cellular] telephone that has the computer power of the best PCs that are out there right now," Detective Sgt. Paul Gillespie, a veteran of the Toronto Police force's sex crimes unit, told an international conference in Toronto.

He warned that hand-held devices including cell phones, PDAs and portable MP3-type players increasingly would be used to take and transfer images of child pornography. Gillespie issued his warning while Dunston allegedly was posting child pornography to his Web site from his cell phone.

Dunston is being held at the Penobscot County Jail until a detention hearing to set bail and conditions of release can be held. That hearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Margaret Kravchuk is set for 10:30 a.m. Jan. 31 in U.S. District Court in Bangor.

His criminal record dates back to 2001. Dunston's convictions in state court include violating conditions of release, negotiating a worthless instrument, possession of sexually explicit materials, and sexual abuse of a minor. He is required to register as a sex offender because of the sexual abuse conviction.

That conviction also means he faces a minimum of 10 years in prison if convicted on the federal charges. He also faces a maximum of 20 years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000.

A check Tuesday afternoon of the sex offender Web site showed that Dunston is registered as required.

He also is on probation for his 2003 misdemeanor conviction in 2nd District Court in Houlton for having sex with a 14- or 15-year-old when Dunston was at least five years older than the victim. If his probation on that charge were to be revoked in state court, it's unlikely he would be released from jail.