Madison County man faces sexual assault and child porn charges. The victim is an infant
An Alton man faces charges of predatory criminal sexual assault of a child and child pornography after he admitted to police he took sexually explicit photos of an infant girl and disseminated them online, Madison County court records state.
Nathan J. Welch, who turned 31 on Monday when the charges were filed, was arrested on Friday at his home in the 700 block of West Delmar Avenue in Alton after the Edwardsville Police Department received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which in turn had received a tip from the Kik Messenger app, according to the court records.
Welch faces two counts of predatory criminal sexual assault of a child and five counts of child pornography.
A police detective determined that the Internet Protocol addresses linked to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children tip were located in the 700 block of West Delmar in Alton, according to a Madison County State’s Attorney’s petition to deny Welch pretrial release.
Two of the images shared on Kik depicted sexually explicit photos of an infant, the petition states.
“The defendant was taken into custody and interviewed,” the petition states. “During his interview, he admitted to taking the photos and disseminating them.”
A defense attorney for Welch was not listed in court records.
Welch was being held in the Madison County Jail Tuesday morning. A pretrial detention hearing was scheduled for him on Tuesday afternoon.
The Madison County Sheriff’s Office requested prosecutors file the charges.
