47-Year-Old Bunnell Man Arrested On 12 Counts of Child Porn Possession

Michael Giachetti, a 47-year-old resident of the Palm Terrace community in Bunnell (Lot 63), is at the Flagler County jail following his arrest on 12 counts of possession of child pornography in computer video files. Each count is a third-degree felony. He is being held on $60,000 bond.

A special agent with the Internet Crimes Against Children task force started an investigation of Giachetti last September, which led to Giachetti’s home. Circuit Judge Matthew Foxman signed a search warrant on Wednesday (March 16). It was served at dawn Thursday.

Giachetti, his arrest report states, “was interviewed and subsequently confessed to downloading and possessing child pornography.” He said he’d been downloading pornography since 2008 “and believes he has become addicted to it. He’d been using a file-sharing program called Sharaza to search and download files, keying in on files coded “PTHC,” for “pre-teen hard core,” or “CP,” for child pornography.

Peer-to-peer file-sharing programs enable one computer to share files with another across the globe. The file-sharing programs are commonly used to exchange music and video files, often pirated, and can do so without going through an intervening server. The technology itself is far from illicit: Skype operates on a peer-to-peer basis. But many illegal file-sharing services have adopted the technology as well.

An on-site preview of Giachetti’s computer revealed 12 video files varying in length from 30 seconds to 20 minutes, all of them involving prepubescent children in hardcore sexual acts with adults.

Florida has several Internet Crimes Against Children task forces, generally funded through grants by the U.S. Department of Justice and designed to investigates and prosecutes individuals who use the internet to exploit children.

Giachetti is scheduled for a felony arraignment before Foxman on April 4.