Gerrard Kaonga
Warning: This article contains discussion of child abuse which some readers may find distressing.
A man is responsible for his father’s arrest after he made a horrifying discovery while trying to help with his phone.
A Florida man was very likely unprepared for the discovery he would make after offering to help his father.
Jared Follin, 30, was asked by his father Gene Follin, 63, for help gaining access to his Gmail account after being locked out.
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However, Jared would find there was a very good reason why his father hadn’t been able to access his account.
The 30-year-old discovered that his father was in possession of almost 1,000 files of child pornography.
Google had flagged the Gmail account due to the illicit images of children on his Google Photos, according to his arrest affidavit.
After making the horrifying discovery, Jared informed the police of what he had found on his father’s phone.
A month after this, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children sent a tip to the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office Internet Crimes Against Children task force after a Google account was flagged for uploading child pornography to its Google Photos folder.
A sheriff’s office detective notified the Kenneth City Police Department about the flag, leading to a subpoena of the IP address, later confirming Gene Follin was the user of the account.
Following this, detectives were given a search warrant for Follin’s account and found 952 disturbing files involving children.
These images are believed to have been uploaded between March 13, 2023, and September 10, 2024.
Some of the images discovered involved girls as young as five years old.
Follin was arrested earlier this week on Tuesday (January 28) for possession of child pornography. The arrest affidavit stated that he admitted to 'saving child pornography' when questioned by Kenneth City Police.
Follin now faces 20 felony charges, and each second-degree felony charge holds a maximum prison term of 15 years.
He has since been released from custody on Thursday (January 30) after posting $100,000 bond. It is not yet clear if he has entered a plea.
Back in 2017, Follin reportedly set up a GoFundMe after suffering a heart attack and underwent open heart surgery.
The fundraiser described Follin as a father of three and a grandfather of three. He was also described as ‘compassionate, dependable and kind'.
It added: “'He is always there to make you smile and let you know that life is much more than the malarkey we each face every day.”