Rochester man charged with child pornography
NEW SEWICKLEY TWP. — A Rochester man is facing a series of felony charges including 25 counts of child pornography and unlawful contact with a minor.
Christian Winterhalter, 48, is also charged with disseminating photos of child sex acts and criminal use of a communication facility in regards to a reported incident in New Sewickley Township.
According to court papers, state police received information from the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC), regarding child pornography on March 11 on the social media site Kik, under the user name “winston4773,” and the name registered on the account as “John Smith.”
Eventually, PSP was able to determine the account belonged to Winterhalter.
According to court papers, the username winston4773 contacted an undercover agent from the Tarian Regional Undercover Unit, who posed as a 12-year-old female.
Throughout the conversations, the agent and “John Smith” communicated with one another with Winterhalter wanting to do inappropriate actions with the female, court papers state.
On June 23, a search was conducted where Winterhalter lived in Rochester.
He reportedly told police he owned the Kik account with the username winston4773 that was only used by him, he would talk with anyone, including underage children, which would turn sexual with nude photos being exchanged.
Winterhalter also reportedly said he has a problem and has a sexual interest in children.
Police seized multiple devices from the property, including a cell phone with the winston4773 Kik account, which reportedly contained multiple group chat threads containing prepubescent children, with one chat thread specifically used for the exchanging of nude images for children between 12-17 years old.
Another cell phone had an Instagram account, with the username winston47735, which reportedly contained 24 total images of child pornography.
Previously, on Jan. 24, 2005, he pled guilty to a felony count of disseminating sexually explicit materials to a minor and a summary count of unlawful contact/communication with a minor.
Winterhalter was also convicted of sexual exploitation of a minor in 2019, in North Carolina, where, in 2018, he and a minor female sent sexually explicit messages with one another, with Winterhalter sending nude images of himself to the victim, and solicited images from the victim as well, according to the Union County Sheriff’s Office in Monroe, N.C.
He is listed as both a Pennsylvania Megan’s Law offender and on the North Carolina Sex Offender Registry.
He remains lodged in the Beaver County Jail on a $125,000 bond.
Nicholas Vercilla is a staff reporter for the Beaver County Times and Ellwood City Ledger. He can be reached at nvercilla@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Rochester man charged with child pornography
