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Man Charged With Running Child Pornography Operation Out Of Garage

CASTLE SHANNON (KDKA) -- A local man is in jail, accused of running a child pornography operation out of his garage.

Investigators say he had more than a dozen downloads and was sharing them with others.

Authorities say the investigation traced the child porn operation to Bryan Zaharko by his computer's IP address, which was reportedly making the files available.

One neighbor who didn't want to be identified said, "I guess you're always shocked. You never know what people are up to inside closed doors; but like I said, when you see something like this happen, it's good that someone caught up with him."

The state Attorney General's Child Predator Unit says Zaharko is accused of setting up a "peer-to-peer" network sharing system in his Bockstoce Avenue garage with servers and routers.

According to the criminal complaint, agents successfully downloaded 17 files that depicted prepubescent children engaged in graphic sexual acts and or poses.

Neighbors say the 32-year-old doesn't live there alone.

"A woman and a girlfriend, maybe, and two kids," the neighbor said.

"It can happen anywhere, but I never did think it was going to happen here, in this area, you know, because this is a very nice neighborhood," another neighbor, Rafael Salomon, said.

When agents from the Attorney General's Office and Castle Shannon Police raided Zaharko's home, they found multiple computer towers, a laptop and other media storage devices all with suspected child porn.

Zaharko is charged with 10 counts of having child porn, a count of distributing it and a count of criminal use of a communication facility.

Officers also found nine grams of marijuana and a scale at Zaharko's home.

He was also charged for that and locked up in the Allegheny County Jail on a $30,000 cash bond.

RELATED LINKS:
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