Post by abbey1227 on Jun 19, 2022 23:31:39 GMT
Oahu teacher arrested for distributing child porn
By Matthew Nuttle Jun 17, 2022 Updated Jun 17, 2022
HONOLULU (KITV4) -- An Oahu school teacher is behind bars accused of distributing child pornography in incidents going back to 2019.
According to the criminal complaint document, 34-year-old Alden Bunag committed the alleged crimes from November 2019 through at least October 2021.
Federal investigators caught wind of the crimes in July 2021 after a cybertip led them to a private school teacher in Philadelphia who had allegedly uploaded child pornography.
FBI agents executed a search warrant at the Philadelphia teacher’s home and during that search discovered a device showing communication with someone under the display name “Alden.” Investigators say the two exchanged nearly 3,400 messages and hundreds of images and video files over the course of about seven months.
A further search of the Philadelphia teacher’s cellphone uncovered three videos showing an adult man and a minor boy engaged in sex acts, six non-pornographic photos showing Bunag’s students, and three anime photographs.
Investigators said, at this point in the investigation, it was unclear if Bunag was the man in the videos.
Based on the nature of Bunag’s chats with the Philadelphia teacher, investigators said they believed Bunag had sent videos of himself engaged in sex acts with a 13-year-old student. In some chats Bunag even claimed that he had sex with the teen boy at school during lunch breaks, investigators said.
On June 15, FBI agents in Honolulu served a search warrant at Bunag’s home. They also located Bunag as he was working as a summer school teacher at an unidentified Oahu high school.
During a voluntary interview, investigators say Bunag admitted that he had been having sex with a 13-year-old boy who was one of his former students, that he knew the boy was a minor, and that he used camera equipment to record the encounter. He also told investigators that he sent the video to the Philadelphia teacher and others using the messaging app Telegram.
Bunag told investigators he had distributed other child pornography involving other minors. He was arrested following the interview on one complaint of distribution of child pornography.
It is unclear if additional charges will be followed based on some of Bunag’s admissions to investigators.
Bunag made his initial court appearance on Thursday, June 16. He has a detention hearing set for June 21 and a preliminary hearing on June 27.
KITV4 has reached out to the Hawaii Department of Education regarding this case and on Bunag’s status as a teacher. So far, the DOE has not responded.
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