News

Google Mail Scanning Helps to Catch Child Molester

A cyber-tip, generated by Google and then sent to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, has led to the arrest of a 41-year-old previous convicted child molester from Houston. The Police say that Google detected explicit images of a young girl in one of the emails of John Henry Skillern was trying to send to a friend and alerted the authorities.

“He was trying to get around getting caught, he was trying to keep it inside his email,” said Detective David Nettles of the Houston Metro Internet Crimes Against Children Taskforce. “I can’t see that information, I can’t see that photo, but Google can.”

Skillern is a registered sex offender who was convicted of sexually assaulting an 8 year-old boy back in 1994. According to the Sex Offender Registry he lives in Houston, but the police said he spends a lot of his time at his parent’s home in Pasadena.

After obtaining a search warrant, investigators said they found child porn on both Skillern’s phone and tablet. They also found text messages and e-mails where he talked about his interest in children. Skillern also worked as a cook for a Denny’s restaurant in Pasadena. They say he also had video on his cell phone of young children visiting the restaurant with their families.

“He seemed like a nice, normal man,” said neighbour Yesenia Gonzales. “Thank goodness for Google.”

Skillern has been charged with one count of possession of child pornography and one count of promotion of child pornography and is being held on a $200,000 bond. Google wouldn’t respond to our questions about their technology used to fight child porn, but police are grateful for the tip. “I really don’t know how they do their job,” said Nettles. “But I’m just glad they do it.”

Thank you KHOU for providing us with this information

Images courtesy of KHOU

Bohs Hansen

Disqus Comments Loading...

Recent Posts

Assassin’s Creed Boss Calls Shadows’ Inclusivity Backlash ‘Devastating’

The Assassin's Creed Shadows development team has been facing a difficult time amid an ongoing…

12 mins ago

Yoshi-P Says He Would Like a Re-Release of Vagrant Story and Final Fantasy Tactics

More than twenty years after the launch of Vagrant Story, many are still dreaming of…

27 mins ago

Still Wakes the Deep 

LIVE THE HORROR: An immersive disaster story aboard a stunningly realised North Sea oil rig,…

5 hours ago

PHILIPS 275V8LA – 27 Inch QHD Monitor

The Philips VA LED display uses an advanced multi-domain vertical alignment technology that gives you…

5 hours ago

EPOMAKER Ajazz AK820 Pro 75% Gasket-mounted Mechanical Keyboard 

【TFT Screen: The Interactive Interface】This 75% mechanical keyboard comes equipped with a TFT Screen, serving…

5 hours ago

Funko Fusion

FANDOM FUSION Play as your favorite characters and wield their unique weapons and skills. Team…

5 hours ago