Riverside County Man Arrested for Child Porn; Victims Sought

A Riverside County man has been arrested for multiple counts of possession of child pornography and possession of child pornography involving a child under the age of 12, police say.

On Tuesday, Sept. 18, detectives from the Beaumont Police Department arrested James Nicholas Ibach, 30, as part of a case that began on July 24, when the BPD received a call regarding a suspicious person seen photographing/videotaping a young girl at a department store in the 1500 block of E. 2nd Street Marketplace.

A witness said a man was photographing the juvenile as she bent over in an aisle of the store. The witness began yelling and questioning the subject, at which time the subject quickly left the business, according to police. Officers later arrived at the scene and were unable to locate the subject, but obtained a description of him as well as surveillance footage of the subject from the store's cameras.

After several weeks and without many leads in the case, an officer from the Beaumont Police Department received information from another law enforcement agency in Southern California that identified a subject from the City of Beaumont who was involved in a similar case in their city.

Based on photographs provided by the other agency, the officer identified the subject as the same person from the Beaumont case in July. Having identified the subject, the Beaumont Police Department authored a search warrant for his residence located in the 1100 block of Dadash, in the city of Beaumont and seized various data storage devices.

Then, on Sept. 18, Beaumont Police detained Ibach for questioning, and according to police, he admitted to taking numerous videos and photographs of unsuspecting individuals and possessing numerous photographs and videos depicting child pornography. Ibach was booked into Smith Correctional Facility in Banning.

The investigation is ongoing, according to the BPD, and additional charges could be filed.

Detectives say Ibach may have victimized other individuals in and around Beaumont. Anyone who may have information about this case or have reason to believe you may have been a victim can contact the Beaumont Police Department at (951) 769-8500. Information may also be reported anonymously via email at crimetips@beaumontpd.org or our website at beaumontpd.org/crime-tips.

Image via Beaumont Police Dept.