U.K. tip leads to Cary child porn arrest

James Phillip Carroll, 19, of 300 Tynemouth Drive in Cary, was charged with six counts of second-degree sexual exploitation of a minor. He was being held Friday in the Wake County jail under a $200,000 bond.

"We went from a tip from somebody in England to getting this guy in custody," said Capt. Michael Williams of the Cary Police Department.

An unidentified person in England alerted British authorities about alarming statements made by a man in an online chat room, Williams said. Authorities used information from the computer of the chat-room poster to trace the activity to Cary, where police searched a home in the Wessex subdivision.

Police found six videos on a computer that depicted 6- and 7-year-old girls engaged in sex acts with a man, according to arrest warrants.

"The crimes are committed from the comfort of their home. They feel like they're not harming anybody, and nobody's detecting what they're doing. We are looking at what people are doing on the Internet," Williams said.

Carroll, a sophomore at N.C. State, lives with his parents. His father declined to comment Friday, but Williams said the parents are cooperating with police.

"We have the ability to track them, and if it comes out to an address in Cary, we're going to aggressively go toward making an arrest and getting these people out of our community," Williams said. "We will keep our children safe."