By Pat Grossmith
The New Hampshire Union Leader
BEDFORD, N.H. — A Bedford firefighter told a federal agent he had material on an external hard drive that would “put me away for years,” just before he was arrested for possessing and distributing child pornography, according to court paperwork.
Jason Godin of Merrimack was arrested May 5 after Jonathan Posthumus, special agent with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations, obtained a search warrant for his home.
Messages left for Bedford Fire Chief Scott Wiggin for comment were not returned.
Federal agents opened an investigation into Godin after the social media company Twitter filed a report in February to CyberTipline, operated by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). Twitter had identified the user account of “speedo_kid” as possibly being involved in the possession and distribution of child pornography.
In filing the report to NCMEC, Twitter uploaded a copy of the images and file attachments, along with the IP address used to send the uploaded files to Twitter’s servers.
The files Twitter submitted on Feb. 24 from the account of “speedo_kid” contained 62 images, including images of young boys estimated to be between the ages of 8 and 14 in provocative poses wearing Speedos.
Ultimately, after serving a summons to Fairpoint Communications, the account was identified as allegedly belonging to Godin, a firefighter and paramedic employed by Bedford Fire and Rescue.
Posthumus searched the speedokid69 moniker and located an explicit story posted by speedokid69@yahoo.com on a website featuring gay, erotic fiction. Under the website’s adult/youth section, a story titled “Surf Boy” appears to be written on Aug. 7, 2012 by “T W” using the email address of speedokid69@yahoo.com.
In the story, which involved a minor, the author describes himself as a 28-year-old bisexual firefighter and triathlete named Jacob.
The federal agent also discovered a sexually explicit video of adults posted online by speedokid69.
When Godin’s Merrimack home was searched, Posthumus talked with him. Godin, Posthumus said in the federal complaint, confirmed he used the moniker speedokid69, the Yahoo email address, posted the images on Twitter and wrote the “Surf Boy” story.
According to the federal complaint, Godin indicated he writes such stories as an outlet, or release, in order to quell any desire to engage in inappropriate contact with minors.
Godin told the agent there may be a handful of images that constitute child pornography on his personal phone, the documents stated.
Asked if he had any additional electronic devices that could contain child pornography, Godin allegedly told the agent there was an external hard drive in his laptop case, which he believed may contain both images and videos of child pornography, material that would “put me away for years,” according to court paperwork.
Investigators confiscated that hard drive which, Posthumus said in the complaint, was found to contain several videos.
On May 9, Magistrate Judge Andrea K. Johnstone set conditions of Godin’s release, which included him being placed on an electronic monitoring device and residing at 224 Brentwood Circle, Danvers, Mass.
He is not to create any new internet or social media accounts or access or use any previously created accounts without prior approval of a supervising officer and then, only after first providing the officer with his screen names, user names and passwords.
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(c)2016 The New Hampshire Union Leader (Manchester, N.H.)