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An investigation began on April 20 when the dad of two girls, ages 11 and 12, told the Montgomery County Detective Bureau that his daughters had been solicited to send naked images via TikTok and text messages by a man later identified as Ryan Corcoran, of Andover, NJ, Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin R. Steele said.
The dad claimed he learned of the communications when one of his daughters told him that she had sent a naked picture of herself to the texter. Soon after, both girls began receiving texts from another phone number, which claimed to be the 14-year-old sister of the original texter but was actually Corcoran in both cases, the DA said.
Both girls were sent naked photos and were solicited to provide naked photos of themselves, Steele said. All of the messaging took place between April 17 and April 20, he added.
The phone number was traced to Ad Hoc Labs, which provides a service designed to conceal a true phone number, investigators said.
After serving a subpoena to obtain user data related to the phone number originally used to set up the account, investigators tracked down the actual phone number and the corresponding IP address, they said. They linked it to a Verizon wireless business account registered to Michael Corcoran, Corcoran's dad.
Investigators then served a search warrant on the Corcoran's Sussex County home, where Ryan Corcoran confirmed the cellphone number was his, they said.
Detectives also found the phone numbers of both girls stored as contacts on his phone, text messages between him and the girls, and the original naked image sent by one of the girls, they said.
Corcoran was arrested on felony charges of child pornography, unlawful contact with a minor, corruption of minors, and criminal use of a communications facility.
“This defendant was reaching out to random young girls on a social media platform and soliciting them to take photos of themselves in sexually explicit poses, clearly creating child pornographic images,” DA Steele said.
“This is another example that there are predators out there on the internet trying to take advantage of young innocent children. Parents need to be ever-vigilant to protect their children from these predators.”
Corcoran was arraigned on Monday, June 13 before a judge who set bail at $50,000 cash with additional provisions of no internet usage and no contact with minors. He posted bail and was released, authorities said.
A preliminary hearing is set for Monday, June 27.
The Montgomery County Detectives were assisted in this investigation by Homeland Security Investigations, the New Jersey Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force and the Sussex County Prosecutors Office.
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