Montgomery County Man Charged With Distribution and Attempted Distribution of Child Pornography

PHILADELPHIA – United States Attorney David Metcalf announced that Douglas Penglase, 37, of Hatboro, Pennsylvania, was arrested and charged by criminal complaint with one count of distribution and attempted distribution of child pornography.

The defendant was arrested this morning and made his initial appearance before the Honorable Lynne A. Sitarski.

As detailed in the criminal complaint, on May 27, 2024, the social media platform Kik reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) that one of its users was transmitting files depicting child pornography (hereafter referred to as Child Sex Abuse Material or CSAM). NCMEC flagged 50 files as CSAM, specifically, depictions of prepubescent female minor children between the approximate ages of 8-12 years engaged in sexual activities with adults.

The contents of the Kik account were obtained by law enforcement via a search warrant, and review of the contents revealed almost 300 files containing CSAM. The search warrant return also included more than 1,100 messages between that target and other Kik users.

The criminal complaint alleges that the defendant was one of the other users involved in chatting about, and trading, CSAM, with the original Kik user and the defendant distributing nine CSAM videos each.

The complaint further alleges that law enforcement also obtained the contents of the Kik account belonging to the defendant. A review of the account revealed approximately 780 files containing CSAM.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by United States Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit projectsafechildhood.gov.

If convicted, the defendant faces a maximum possible sentence of 20 years’ imprisonment.

The case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Anthony Carissimi.

An indictment, information, or criminal complaint is an accusation. A defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.