PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — A man enlisted in the U.S. Navy has been charged with possession of child pornography after special agents allege he possessed images and videos of child porn and filed craigslist ads looking for a “young” woman.

In an affidavit filed in court, the special agent said Robert Houston Birchett filed personal ads on Craigslist looking for a “young” sexual partner in January 2018. It was flagged as suspected solicitation of a minor.

In May 2018, Homeland Special Investigations served multiple summons for information relating to the posts that had been made. The information agents received indicated the poster was Birchett, a Portsmouth resident.

Law enforcement interviewed Birchett on Nov. 2, 2018. He said he had moved, but previously lived at the address that the personal ad post had been traced to.

Birchett admitted to posting the ads on Craigslist, according to the affidavit.

After the interview, Birchett allowed investigators to search his desktop computer at his residence. On Nov. 29, law enforcement forensically went through his desktop computer and found eight files that had names indicating they were child pornography.

One year later, on Oct. 1, 2019, he told investigators that he received those files from another military member in 2008 or 2009 via hard drive. He said the child pornography files should still be on his desktop computer.

At that time, agents asked Birchett when he had last looked at child pornography. He said: “I don’t know maybe sometime earlier in the year. Not much after this s–t happened the
first f—–g time.”

He said he used his computers to go on Imgur and Reddit and used certain types of downloaders to view the pornography. He also said there was “an endless list of sites,” some which were only available for a few hours before being taken down.

He admitted to using certain search terms that are commonly used for child pornography, according to the affidavit.

A search of two computers and two hard drives yielded 3,892 thumbnail images, 83 images, and one video of suspected child pornography in system backups from 2017. There were also 52 deleted images, four deleted video fragments and three Windows LNK files of child pornography.

There was also a deleted master file table folder from an external hard drive that matched a list in a file on one of the computers. The file on one of the computers had an additional 36 entries “of possible interest,” documents state.

On Dec. 2, an agent reviewed the results of the examination of the computers and hard drives and saw three thumbnails that depicted child pornography involving a pre-pubescent female and an “apparent infant or toddler.”

On Nov. 11, Birchett filed a leave request with the USS George H.W. Bush, asking for Dec. 27 to Jan. 10 off. He said he would be on leave at his home in Portsmouth.

Agents filed the affidavit Jan. 13 and requested an arrest warrant for Birchett.

He is currently being held at Western Tidewater Regional Jail.