27-Year-Old Man Arrested, Accused Of Child Pornography Possession In Mayes County

The Mayes County Sheriff's Department arrested 27-year-old Brian Fort for child pornography charges.

The investigation began with a cyber tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Deputies say this is just one of several child pornography search warrants served by their team within the last few months.

Deputies searched the home of Fort who investigators say had child sexual abuse material on his phone, tablet and computer.

The Mayes County Sheriff’s Office says this case started with a tip from the social media app, Kik.

“So, they will send us a cyber tip and that can come from any electronic service provider or internet provider so for example, Kik, Snapchat, Reddit, Discord,” said Corporal Thomas Williams with the Mayes County Sheriff's Office.

Williams says Fort was part of an online chat group that shared illegal images and videos of children being sexually abused. 

“A fake username and email was used to upload a parent-child pornography which created the cyber tip,” he said.

They got the tip in December. They say tracing illicit activity and identifying suspects takes a long time. 

“You want to make sure you’re not putting an innocent person in jail, and you want to do your due diligence for the victims as well,” said Deputy Damon Brandt. 

He's seeing more of these cases because technology makes it so easy for predators to reach children.

“Since November of last year, I think we have received approximately 10 cyber tips just from Mayes County alone,” said Brandt.

Mayes County hopes to get funding to be able to create two full-time positions dedicated to child crimes.