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Suffolk County resident Kenneth Higgins, age 45, of Revere, was arrested on Wednesday, March 13, and charged with possession of child pornography and possession of child pornography, third offense.
Dave Procopio of the Massachusetts State Police said Higgins, who is classified as a Level 2 Sex Offender, has multiple prior convictions for possession of child sexual abuse materials; he is currently on probation following a prison sentence he served for a 2008 child pornography conviction.
Wednesday's charges stemmed from an investigation by the State Police Detective Unit for Suffolk County and the State Police Cyber Crime Unit that began as a result of a cyber tip provided by Yahoo to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), Procopio said.
Procopio said early Wednesday, troopers, with assistance from a Revere Police detective, executed a search warrant at Higgins' Revere Beach Parkway apartment, where they located his phone.
Higgins refused to provide a passcode to access the phone, but a trooper was able to retrieve its memory card per the court-authorized search. The hundreds of images and videos of child sexual abuse material were extracted from the card, state police said.
He is being held without bail for violating his probation from the previous case by re-offending.
As part of the same investigation, troopers executed a separate search warrant on an apartment at 165 Hawthorne St., Chelsea, the residence of a friend of Higgins. Troopers seized several electronic devices from that apartment, which will be analyzed by the Cyber Crime Unit, Procopio said.
Charges may be filed against the resident of that apartment depending on the results of the Cyber Crime Unit’s examination of the devices.
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