England Teen on Snapchat Accused of Soliciting Sexual Images from 11-year-old in Michigan

Investigators with the Michigan State Police post in Marshall say a 17-year-old from England is under investigation for criminal sexual activity involving an 11-year-old child from Michigan. The incident took place earlier this month but information about the case was released to the media on Wednesday.

Troopers were called to a location in Branch County's Sherwood Township after receiving reports that a young child had accidentally sent an inappropriate photo to a person they had met on the social media app Snapchat.

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Investigators say the other person had claimed to be a 15-year-old female and was trying to blackmail the child to send more photos. That's when they say the 11-year-old alerted their parent who then called the Michigan State Police.

Troopers were quickly able to obtain a court order for the suspect’s Snapchat account. As a result, hundreds of previously unknown photos and video files were located in the account. Some of them showed sexually abusive material involving underage children other than the original victim from Michigan.

The Michigan State Police 5th District Computer Crimes Unit assisted in this case. The additional digital information included with the photo and video file evidence indicated that the suspect was living in England.

Authorities in Michigan then contacted the England attaché at the National Children Center for Missing and Exploited Children through the English consulate in Washington D.C.. The Department of Homeland Security assisted with sending the evidence over to English investigators.

A 17-year-old male suspect was located and arrested in England in connection to this case sometime late last week, possibly on Thursday, January 20.

Due to all known persons associated with this case being under 18 years of age, their names will not be released at this time. The matter is still under investigation.