Tip from Facebook leads to child pornography charges against Hagerstown doctor

A Hagerstown doctor has been charged with possessing and sharing child pornography at his home, according to Washington County District Court records.

Mohammad Akmal, 66, is charged with 10 counts of promoting/distributing child pornography and 17 counts of possession of child pornography, court records show.

He was arrested Thursday and initially ordered held without bail, court records show.

Bail was set during a hearing Tuesday before District Court Judge Victoria J. Lobley, who placed Akmal on supervised home detention due to his medical issues, according to defense attorney John Salvatore.

Akmal was released from the Washington County Detention Center on Tuesday afternoon after $1,500 cash bail was posted, or 10% of the $15,000 set by the judge, court records and authorities said late Tuesday afternoon. The bail figure was earlier reported as $5,000.

Akmal is required to remain at home except to go to medical and legal appointments, and he would have to obtain permission from the court to leave for any other reason, Salvatore said.

The charging document filed against Akmal by the Washington County Sheriff’s Office states that Akmal is a pain medicine anesthesiology specialist at Anesthesia and Interventional Pain Management Center in Hagerstown.

A voicemail seeking comment was left Tuesday at a telephone number listed for the practice, but it was not immediately returned.

Akmal is accused of knowingly sharing images or videos of minors engaged in sexual conduct between March 24, 2020, and June 6, as well as possessing child pornography between March 24, 2020, and Oct. 26. He told investigators he did not view the images at work, according to the charging document.

Sheriff's office investigators received tips from Facebook that a user had shared videos believed to be child pornography and traced the source to Akmal, the document states.

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While serving a search-and-seizure warrant at Akmal's home in October, he acknowledged that he had created a Facebook account "sometime ago." When asked if the name of the account was the name provided in the tip from Facebook, he replied, "maybe something like that," the document states.

Akmal said he browsed Facebook but didn't remember seeing the videos in question. He said Facebook shut down his account "… because (of) browsing some sites" that kept popping up. When asked if he had created a new Facebook account and if he had any active ones he said, "I think so yes," according to the document.

When asked if he knew the people he was sending the videos to on Facebook, he said "I think maybe yes" but that they were not local, the document states.

He said had not ever touched a child, the document states.

Police seized items including computers, cellphones and digital storage devices during the search of Akmal's home, according to the document.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Facebook tip prompts child porn charges against Hagerstown doctor