A 40-year old man with addresses in South Berwick and several other locations around the state was arrested on charges of child pornography by federal agents Monday morning in a house near the corner of Butler and Main streets.
Kristen Carver was charged with receipt and possession of child pornography following an investigation involving a minor female from New Hampshire, according to Assistant District Attorney Craig M. Wolff, in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Maine.
A preliminary hearing and detention hearing are scheduled for 1 p.m. April 17 at the U.S. District Court in Portland. Carver will remain in custody pending these hearings.
The South Berwick Police Department had limited involvement in the apprehension but shut down part of Main Street while the arrest was being made, according to Deputy Chief Scott Stephens.
The FBI in September began investigating a 17-year-old female from New Hampshire who had been the target of child sexual online exploitation that began when she was 16 years old using a Snapchat platform, according to an 18-page affidavit the South Berwick Reporter received Tuesday from the FBI-Boston office in Chelsea, Mass.
“There is probable cause that [between] about October 22, 2024, and January 16, 2026, Kristen Carver did knowingly possess images and videos of child pornography which had previously been transported in and affect interstate and foreign commerce.”
Over several months, agents met with the minor and her mother at a New Hampshire police department, according to the affidavit.
The investigation uncovered Snapchat messages that led them to Carver. Hotel records from Concord, N.H., in 2024 showed Carver’s address in Buxton, and provided information on a car registered in South Berwick they concluded belonged to Carver, after checking phone records.
Phone records indicated he also had residential addresses in Eddington and Saco, and Snapchat accounts revealed Carver created multiple usernames on different iPhones.
A review of the minor’s Snapchat account showed images and a video considered to be child sexual abuse material. And in January, the minor told investigators Carver knew she was a minor and that they met on multiple occasions to engage in sexual intercourse.
The account included sexually explicit images and video files of other minors who appeared to be between 12 and 17, according to the FBI.
