Man removed from sex offender registry arrested on suspicion of possessing child porn, police say
A San Diego man who was removed from the state’s sex offender registry three years ago was arrested Monday after he photographed young girls in bathing suits at a Fontana birthday party and later was found to possess child pornography, police said.
Police responded to a home on Boxwood Court in Fontana on Sunday evening after receiving reports that Joseph Welsh, 47, had taken several photographs of female children at a family gathering. Several parents noticed their children being photographed and confronted Welsh, took his cellphone and called police, according to the Fontana Police Department.
Detectives with the department’s Internet Crimes Against Children Unit served dual search warrants Monday at Welsh’s home in the 2200 block of Tokalon Street in San Diego and his business in the 4100 block of Mission Boulevard.
Investigators searched multiple electronic devices in Welsh’s possession and found “several pornographic photos of children on the devices,” Fontana police said in a statement.
Welsh was arrested on suspicion of child pornography with a prior conviction and felony child annoyance with a prior conviction, police said. He was booked in the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga.
Police said Welsh was a registered sex offender until 2014, when “courts determined him not a danger to the public and he received a rehabilitation certificate.”
Twitter: @haileybranson
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