Crime & Safety
Forsyth County Man Charged with Possession of Child Porn
After completing forensic previews of a computer at the suspect's residence, a GBI agent obtained warrants charging the man.
UPDATE: 3-21-13, 3:31 p.m. (county jail mug shot, bond set)
A 42-year-old Forsyth County man faces at least five counts of possession of child pornography found on his computer, authorities said.
William Guy Hella was arrested Wednesday after his home on Lakewood Road in Cumming was searched by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force and the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office.
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Hella has been charged with five counts of sexual exploitation of children (possession of child pornography).
The search warrant was obtained as a result of evidence developed by the Liberty County Sheriff’s Office, which is located in Liberty, Texas, of peer-to-peer file sharing of child pornography images from an IP address which the GBI’s Child Exploitation and Computer Crimes Unit determined was registered to Hella. After completing forensic previews of a computer at the residence, a GBI agent obtained warrants charging Hella.
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Hella was transported to the Forsyth County Jail where his bond has been set for $28,050. A jail spokesperson said he is scheduled to see a magistrate judge Friday morning.
This investigation is part of the ongoing effort by the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, housed within the GBI’s Child Exploitation and Computer Crimes Unit, to identify those involved in the child porn trade. The ICAC Program, created by the U. S. Department of Justice, was developed in response to the increasing number of children and teenagers using the Internet, the proliferation of child pornography, and the heightened online activity by predators searching for unsupervised contact with underage victims. The Task Force consists of 182 affiliate Georgia law enforcement agencies.
In 2008, the Georgia ICAC Task Force made 109 arrests and in 2009 made 164 arrests. In 2010, the Task Force made 162 arrests and in 2011, made 173 arrests. There were a total of 163 arrests made in 2012. There have been 973 arrests in Georgia by the ICAC Task Force since it was established in 2002.
Editor's Note: An arrest does not indicate a conviction.
