Montco man faces federal child porn charges

A Montgomery County man will appear before a federal Judge Thursday to face charges of distributing child pornography and attempting to entice a 13-year-old girl to have sex with him.

James A. Morgan, 45, was arrested Tuesday at his mother's home in Hatfield Township. He is accused by U.S. officials of trafficking in explicit images of children having sex with adults. He allegedly transmitted those images - up to 36 photos and seven videos - to an undercover investigator who he believed was a prepubescent girl in Texas, authorities said.

He is scheduled to go before U.S. Magistrate Judge Linda K. Caracappa Thursday for a pretrial detention hearing.

Morgan, who works as a forklift operator at Costco in Montgomeryville, called himself WOOK-INKY101 in an Internet chat room. Investigators said that on September 14, Morgan made contact with the person he believed to be the young girl. He identified himself as a dad from Pennsylvania. Then he turned the webcam on himself and transmitted a live video of himself masturbating, according to court papers.

When he was finished, he asked for the girl's cellphone number and said that he would travel to Texas to see her, court documents state.

WOOK-INKY101 engaged in additional conversations with the undercover agent nine times, most recently on December 2. During one of the chats, Morgan allegedly offered to be her "sex ed teacher." On three more occasions, he masturbated for the camera, court documents state.

During the course of the chats, federal investigators traced WOOK-INKY101 to an IP address belonging to Morgan, the documents state.

On Monday, agents raided his mother's Edgewood Drive home. Morgan, who wasn't there as the search warrant was executed, was later interviewed while at work at Costco, the documents state.

Morgan told investigators that he has used WOOK-INKY101 as a screen name for five years and allegedly admitted to receiving and viewing child pornography sent from other Yahoo users, the documents state.