Lower Burrell man arrested on child sexual abuse charges, police say

A 63-year-old Lower Burrell, Westmoreland County, man was arrested on Monday after police said they identified him in a video depicting the sexual abuse of a toddler that was distributed on the dark web.

Richard Reed was arrested on Sept. 21 after the FBI Child Exploitation Unit referred information about child sexual abuse material to Lower Burrell police, according to police.

Investigators said the material was posted by a user identified as "timeout" and appeared to have been recorded during a video chat.

Police said the video showed an adult man sexually abusing a toddler. Detectives noticed the man had a distinctive tattoo on his inner forearm that appeared to depict a raven skull.

Using an open-source image repository, detectives located images of people they believed resembled the man and child shown in the video, leading them to identify Reed as the suspect.

Lower Burrell police obtained and executed a search warrant at Reed's residence on Sept. 21. 

According to police, Reed answered the door, and detectives observed a forearm tattoo that matched the tattoo seen in the video. He was subsequently taken into custody.

Reed allegedly told investigators that he was experiencing impotence issues and acknowledged using websites to communicate with people or view images of underage girls.

Reed is charged with child pornography, unlawful contact with a minor, rape of a child, statutory sexual assault, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child, sexual assault, aggravated indecent assault, indecent assault of a person younger than 13, corruption of minors and criminal use of a communication facility.

Reed was denied bail.