UPDATE 10/10/24 7:00 p.m.
A Northern Michigan man is behind bars, facing several charges, after police said he was found with thousands of images of child porn in his possession, some of which included pictures and videos involving animals.
19-year-old Cameron Matelski from Charlevoix County was arrested after police were tipped off by a social media platform about a person that was sharing sexually abusive material on their platform. After investigating further, a disturbing volume of digital content was discovered.
Charlevoix County Prosecutor Kit Tholen said he doesn’t believe any children in Northern Michigan were victims in the images found, but the amount of material and what was on those images elevates the seriousness of this crime.
“It’s horrifying that at some point somebody made this, and it’s horrifying that anybody has an interest in even looking at it,” said Tholen.
He said there were so many images, they stopped counting at 1,764. “The law in Michigan does not create any sort of enhanced penalty once you’re past 100. They got more than 17 times the maximum amount that the law looks at in Michigan,” said Tholen. They estimated Matelski had as many as 6,000 images saved on his devices.
Tholen said most social media platforms have algorithms that flag images based off of things like the amount of skin, size of faces and other details. “If it’s a flagged image, they’ll have a person look at it and then the person [will] say, ‘Yeah, that probably looks like that’s a kid.’ And then they just send it on to police,” said Tholen.
He said law enforcement was able to determine the images were being sent from a home in Charlevoix county-based off the IP address. After searching the home and electronic devices, those devices were found to belong to Matelski.
“There was ownership identification on those phones linked to this individual. So, iCloud accounts, Gmail accounts, Facebook Messenger accounts,” said Tholen.
Tholen said the types of abuse found on the images, the ages of the kids, and the sheer volume of material, makes this crime very serious. Matelski could get a maximum sentence of up to 20 years in prison, but Tholen said it’s not likely Matelski would be looking at anything close to that.
“I certainly will be advocating for a significant amount of incarceration because anybody who was to possess this volume of images of this nature in my mind is a threat to the community safety,” said Tholen.
He said it would be ideal if the law created more serious penalties for these types of crimes.
“You’ve got somebody that has a demonstrated higher interest in this material. That logically leads to an inference that they’re presenting a greater danger,” said Tholen.
Matelski is expected to be arraigned Friday, facing nine charges including, child sexually abusive activity, aggravated possession of child sexually abusive material, and using a computer to commit a crime.
10/10/24 1:00 p.m.
CHARLEVOIX COUNTY - The Charlevoix County Sheriff’s Department said Thursday that Cameron Michael Matelski, 19, has been arrested for having more than 1,700 images of child sexually abusive material on his electronic devices.
Deputies said they received a tip from a social media company about an individual sharing images of child sexually abusive material on its social media platform. Deputies identified the residence that the images were being sent from as a Charlevoix County residence, they said.
That home was searched and electronic devices taken, deputies said. When those devices were examined, there were more than 1,700 images of child sexually abusive material, including young children, plus videos and images involving animals. County Prosecutor Kit Tholen said there were likely thousands more.
Ownership information of those devices was also obtained and linked to a resident of the home, who was identified as Matelski, deputies said.
Matelski has been arrested and charged with several counts of child sexually abusive activity, aggravated possession of child sexually abusive material, and using a computer to commit a crime.