American Elgin Fedric Anderson on his way to a regional court in Butuan City. (photo by erwin mascariñas)
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By ERWIN MASCARIÑAS
Correspondent .

AUTHORITIES arrested an American accused of taking advantage of children and of keeping child pornography material in his computer during a raid in Buenavista town in Agusan del Norte, over the weekend.

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The arrest of the suspect, Elgin Fedric Anderson of Washington DC, came the same week Australian pedophile Peter Scully was slapped with a life imprisonment sentence in Cagayan de Oro for abusing children. Scully produced videos of his horrific abuse of children and sold these to other pedophiles online.

The 72-year old Anderson was arrested by the agents of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) with the help of the Cybercrime Office of the Department of Justice (DOJ) during a raid in an apartment on Rizal Street, Lawang, Barangay 2 in Buenavista town. They had with them a search warrant issued by the 2nd branch of the Regional Trial Court in Butuan City.

Serafin Gil, assistant regional director of the NBI in Caraga, said Anderson was charged with violation of the Anti-Child Pornography Act in relation to the Cybercrime Prevention Act.

The NBI seized from Anderson a desktop computer, android tablets, digital storage devices, and a sex toy.

Gil said authorities caught Anderson while he was using his personal computer that was found to contain child pornography material by the DOJ’s digital forensic analysts.

The NBI said Anderson was placed under surveillance for about a month before his arrest on Saturday night because of information that female children were frequently being brought to his apartment.

“The last time we monitored the suspect, he was with minors at Robinson’s mall together with a woman whom we believe to be his girlfriend,” said Gil.

The sad thing about it is, the children were brought to Anderson’s apartment either by their parents of other relatives, Gil said.

He said the NBI is looking into the extent of the involvement of the children’s relatives.

The NBI said Anderson’s modus operandi was to chat with potential victims online and then offer them money.

The suspect declined to comment when reporters pressed him for comment while he was being brought by NBI agents to a regional court in Butuan yesterday.

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