An Essex County Grand Jury indicted a former Andover resident on multiple child pornography last week.
In an indictment returned July 26, Eric B. Hooker, 32, of Danvers, was charged with possession of child pornography and two counts of distribution of child pornography. Hooker owns Andover-based Hook Up Photography. “I photograph fun stuff,” Hooker wrote in the bio of his Instagram profile.
Police arrested Hooker in May after tracking child pornography images downloaded from a BitTorrent sites to Hooker. At the time of his arrest, Hooker told police he refereed youth sports and said he was looking for videos of “an old friend,” according to the Salem News.
Some of the more than 240 images depicted children as young as 11, according to court documents
Hooker pleaded not guilty to the charges in May and was released on $2,500 bail. As a condition of his release, a Newburyport District Court judge ordered him to not use the Internet and not have contact with non-family members under the age of 18. The stipulations of his release were later amended to allow him to use the Internet for work, medical reasons, and to attend court hearings virtually.
A Rowley police officer assigned to the Massachusetts Internet Crimes Against Children task force linked an IP address associated with Hooker to three files downloaded from a BitTorrent site in December.
A judge granted investigators search warrants for the IP address in March and Hooker’s apartment in May. When they executed the search warrant in May, they seized Hooker’s laptop and a portable hard drive. Searches of the computer equipment found 239 additional images on the computer equipment.
Essex County District Attorney’s office spokesman Glenn Johnson said an arraignment date has not been set..
Hooker graduated from Andover High School, where he was a standout varsity golfer, in 2009. He also played golf at Salem State University. In March 2011, Hooker was arrested with his 18-year-old girlfriend and a minor on shoplifting charges in Andover.
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