Winter Haven Man Arrested for 300 Counts on Possession of Child Pornography
On February, 1, 2023, 31 year-old Nikolas Andrew Young (St. Georges Circle, Winter Haven) was taken into custody after a two-month investigation revealed hundreds of still images and videos depicting children appearing as young as four years old involved in sexual conduct with adults and/or other children. (Please note that the content did not involve Young or any known children from Winter Haven or Polk County.)
The investigation started after a Civil Dispute/Eviction was served on Young by his former roommate in December, 2022. While the officer was on scene of the dispute, the roommate alerted the officer to the child pornography on Young’s computer. The roommate stated that Young showed the roommate the images that depicted children between the ages of 12 and 14 engaged in sexual intercourse with apparent adult males and females.
A follow-up was conducted by a Winter Haven Detective and the roommate told the detective he has known Young for three years and they shared the residence for the past 15 months. The roommate told the detective of the “secured”
folder that was located on the Apple Laptop. Further, Young advised the roommate, “Don’t tell anyone, I have a secured file that could put me in jail for the remainder of my life because I do watch child porn.” The roommate described the computer to the detective and the folder on the desktop of the computer. Detectives were made aware of the new location Young had moved to Poinciana.
On January 20, 2023, a Winter Haven Police Officer and Detective responded to the Poinciana residence to interview Young. Throughout the interview, Young stated that in the past, he did watch pornography but he erased all of the files because he wanted to, “clean myself up.”
After continued questioning, Young told the detective that there was child pornography previously on the computer, but he had erased it “years ago”. The detective asked Young if he still had the computer and he ultimately retrieved the computer allowing the detective to take it.
A search warrant was obtained on January 25, 2023 to have a forensic download of the full computer. On February 1, 2023, the download was conducted where hundreds of images and videos depicting child abuse, child pornography along with images of erotica involving children (boys and girls) were located.
On February 1, 2023, Young was taken into custody and charged with 300 Counts of Enhance, Possession, Control, View Depicting Child Pornography (F.S.S.827.071). He is currently in the Polk County Jail with no bond.
“We are thankful for that roommate who spoke up to report this heinous crime that was occurring,” said Police Chief David Brannan. “These children had their innocence taken away for deviants like Young and they will never get that back. He is where he needs to be and should be staying there for a long time.”
Winter Haven Police want to remind anyone who knows of any sexual exploitation of children or knows of someone who has this type of material to report it to your local authorities immediately.
