DELAND, Fla. - An already registered sex offender in DeLand was arrested last week on new child pornography charges. 35-year-old Brad Perry was charged with having it on a phone that he hadn't registered with the authorities.
The investigation into Perry began on Wednesday, when the Volusia Sheriff's Office was sent a tip about a Facebook account which allegedly belonged to him. They reportedly discovered that Perry had a phone, job, and vehicle that he hadn't registered as he was legally required to do. He was said to have given the number on his unregistered phone to a 17-year-old girl.
VSO detectives obtained a search warrant for the phone, and upon serving it they claim to have found multiple social media accounts which also hadn't been registered. Along with those, they reportedly found explicit images of children who were 10 years old at the oldest, and infants at the youngest.
For this offense Perry was charged with nine counts of failure to properly register as a sex offender (four counts on Wednesday, and then five more on Friday), and 30 counts of possession of child pornography. The Volusia Sheriff's Office credited the Career Criminal Unit and Child Exploitation Unit for the bust, along with the unnamed citizen who reported the tip of Perry's alleged activities.
Perry initially became a sex offender after having been convicted of committing sexual battery on a victim under 12 years old in June 2005 in Escambia County. He now lives on Heritage Estates Lane in DeLand, according to data from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
