BARRE — A North Montpelier man is accused of possessing and sharing child sex abuse materials.
Trint Johns, 20, pleaded not guilty Tuesday in Washington County criminal court in Barre to a felony count of lewd and lascivious conduct with a child, two felony counts of possessing child sex abuse materials and a felony count of promoting a recording of sexual conduct involving a child. If convicted, Johns faces a maximum sentence of 35 years in prison. He was released on conditions, including no access to the internet nor can he have contact with children younger than the age of 17.
Detective Sarah Superneau, of the state Attorney General’s Office, said in her affidavit she was asked to follow up with a case referral from police in North Carolina. Superneau said police in that state were investigating possible child sex abuse materials that were sent to a resident in Vermont.
The detective said as part of the investigation, police obtained search warrants for the Instagram accounts involved. Superneau said records from those warrants turned up an image that was sent from the person in Vermont to the person in North Carolina. She said the image appeared to show the male with his genitals exposed while standing behind a fully-clothed girl.
She said police also found a video that appeared to show the male rubbing his genitals against the nude genitals of a girl who appeared younger than the age of 12 and molesting her.
Superneau said files found on the Instagram account showed a child who appeared to be the same young girl either nude or partially nude. The detective said chat logs taken from Instagram appeared to show that the male had access to this girl.
Superneau said a telephone number connected to the Instagram account was traced back to an address on Route 14 in North Montpelier. She said the investigation identified Johns as a suspect who lived at the home.
She said a search warrant was executed there Tuesday. Superneau said Johns was home at the time.
Superneau said Johns admitted to going to “very dark” places on the internet and having conversations with people there, but he never intended to meet them. She said Johns admitted to viewing child sex abuse materials, with the last time being either the night prior to when the search warrant was executed or the night before that. She said Johns also admitted to telling others online how to get such material.
Superneau said Johns admitted a photo found on the offending Instagram account was of a girl he had close proximity to. She said Johns admitted to sharing photos of this girl with others online. Johns also admitted he was the male in the photo with his genitals exposed behind the girl, according to court records.
