A Palm Coast man who had hundreds of files of child sexual abuse material on his laptop and admitted to detectives he preferred young girls was arrested April 16 by the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office, according to a press release.
Scott Beverst, 64, was charged with 10 counts of possession of child pornography. Beverst was transported April 17 to the Sheriff Perry Hall Inmate Detention Facility, where he was being held on a $250,000 bond.
Beverst also used artificial intelligence to produce “porn images of females in his life,” including coworkers, neighbors and associates, a charging affidavit stated. Beverst also used AI to generate child sexual abuse material of a juvenile victim related to an ex-girlfriend, according to the affidavit.
The investigation began in March after the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office tipped off the FCSO that its investigators had intercepted a download of 96 videos of child sexual abuse material, the press release stated. St. Johns investigators believed the person trying to download the files was in Flagler County.
Flagler County Sheriff’s Office Cyber Crimes detectives tracked the downloads to a home on Forest Hill Drive. The sheriff’s office, including its SWAT Team, searched the home on April 16 with the assistance of a regional task force and Homeland Security Investigations.
Flagler K-9 finds devices with suspected child sexual abuse material
Sheriff’s office K-9 Birdie found multiple electronic storage devices containing suspected child sexual abuse material. The devices were seized for further analysis, according to the press release.
Beverst admitted to detectives that he had been viewing child sexual abuse material since 2001 and preferred 11- to 14-year-old girls, according to the press release. Beverst also showed detectives child sexual abuse material on his laptop, which contained hundreds of files, the release stated.
“The amount of child sexual abuse material this guy had and the things he was watching young girls do are sickening,” said Sheriff Rick Staly in the press release. “Perverts watching these disgusting things and thinking they can get away with it should know we will catch them. We work with our partner law enforcement agencies, Operation Light Shine and the INTERCEPT Task Force, and others to protect our children and put perverts like this in jail.”
The investigation is ongoing and additional charges are possible, pending forensic analysis by the Digital Forensics Unit, the release stated.
The arrest followed a monthlong joint investigation by the FCSO Cyber Crimes/Internet Crimes Against Children Unit and the Northeast Florida Inter-Agency Child Exploitation and Persons Trafficking Task Force.
Beverst will be arraigned May 26.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Palm Coast man accused of possession of child sexual abuse material
Reporting by Frank Fernandez, Daytona Beach News-Journal / The Daytona Beach News-Journal
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