An Upper Pottsgrove Man Has Been Charged With Possessing Child Pornography

UPPER POTTSGROVE, PA — A local man is facing numerous felony counts after prosecutors say he was found to be in possession of a large volume of child pornographic images.

The Montgomery County District Attorney's Office on Monday morning announced the arrest of Eric Albitz, 36, of Upper Pottsgrove Township, who is facing 37 felony counts of child pornography and 37 counts of criminal use of a communications facility.

He was arraigned last week before Magisterial District Judge Maurice H. Saylor, who set bail at $1,000 cash, after which Albitz was remanded into custody, according to the D.A.'s Office.

The case began late last year after the Montgomery County Detective Bureau received a cyber tip from the social media platform Snapchat via the Delaware County Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force relating to the uploading of a video that contained suspected child pornography, according to the D.A.'s Office.

Detectives were able to trace the IP address associated with the Snapchat account to a residence on Snyder Road in Upper Pottsgrove where Albitz resides.

Detectives subsequently obtained a search warrant to look at Albitz's cellphone, and a forensic analysis determined the phone contained a total of 37 videos of child pornography, prosecutors stated.

The videos are said to have depicted a female child between the ages of 8 and 12.

Albitz has been scheduled for an April 5 preliminary hearing.

The investigation was undertaken by Special Victims Unit detectives working with the Montgomery County Detective Bureau, a division of the D.A.'s Office, and one that is made of up specially trained detectives from detectives all across the county who routinely work with the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force to investigate crimes perpetuated by child predators.