WV man with username 'MrChildPorn' busted for possession of child porn

A West Virginia man who went by the name “MrChildPorn” online has been arrested for possession of child pornography.

20-year-old Garret Michael Highlander was arrested on August 21 and charged with possession of material depicting minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. According to West Virginia police, Highlander went by the names “MrChildPorn” and “MrToxix” online. He had previously bragged about being in possession of child porn and allegedly shared the images on Discord.

The criminal complaint stated that troopers served a warrant at his residence after receiving 48 Cypertip reports from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Troopers saw “numerous chat conversations” in which Highlander attempted to use Discord’s AI feature to locate explicit images of infants. He also had “asked repeatedly if anyone was willing to trade ‘cp’ with him,” according to a report by WBOY.

Highlander told law enforcement that the comments he made were only done so to be “inflammatory,” claiming that he was “trolling” and “rage baiting” because he found it to be amusing. He did, however, admit to being in “chat servers” where “young, often juvenile females were groomed or talked into self-harm,” though he “insisted he was never involved in this activity.”

Highlander had also allegedly messaged individuals on Discord to the point where users would complain that he would “not stop sending” child sexual abuse material. Some users said that he was “sending the content directly to them via ‘DM’ (direct message).”

Troopers found “multiple images of an apparent pubescent female” in an explicit manner who had “cuts on her arms and legs” on one of Highlander’s devices.