An Ocklawaha registered sex offender was arrested Wednesday in connection with child pornography on his cell phone.
Major crimes detectives from the Marion County Sheriff’s Office took 46-year-old Brian Patrick McCoy into custody and charged him with 20 counts of possession of child pornography. He was booked into the Marion County Jail Wednesday morning, is being held on $100,000 bond and is due in court July 30 at 9 a.m. to answer to the 20 charges.
On April 25, Major Crimes Detective Shannon Wiles received information that multiple files of child pornography were associated with an email address belonging to McCoy, with a listed IP address in Ocklawaha. Detectives were able to identify the subscriber of the IP address as McCoy and the investigation revealed that he was a registered sex offender out of Marion County.
Detectives obtained a search warrant for McCoy’s home, and after being read his rights, McCoy told detectives that the pornography was on his “old” phone, a sheriff’s office report states.
A digital forensic technician from the sheriff’s office then conducted a forensic exam of McCoy’s current cellular phone and located numerous pornographic images and videos of children, the report says.
McCoy is no stranger to the legal system. He has been housed in the Marion County Jail 10 times since December 1996 on a litany of charges, including child abuse without great bodily harm, domestic battery, two counts of failing to comply with sex offender requirements, driving under the influence, a probation violation for driving under the influence (second offense), simple battery, lewd and lascivious act toward a child, driver’s license revoked and placing an altered license plate on a vehicle.
McCoy also was in a state prison from Sept. 1, 2007 to June 30, 2008 for failing to comply with sex offender requirements, Florida Department of Corrections records show.