A 30-year-old man who detectives accused of having images of sex crimes with girls who were as young as 9 years old was at the Paul Rein Detention Facility on Friday in Pompano Beach, records show.

With the help of a Special Weapons and Tactics team, police officers arrested Phillip Burla on Wednesday at his home along Adams Street, South 19 Avenue, in the Parkside neighborhood, according to an arrest report.

Media Lab, the owner of Kik, had notified The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children on July 30 that Kik user “Chris_8.5in” had uploaded images sexually exploiting a girl on July 27-28, records show.

The NCEMC notified the South Florida Internet Crimes Against Children task force that the Media Lab had provided the Kik user’s Internet Protocol address, which belonged to Comcast in Hollywood, records show.

After a subpoena, Comcast identified the subscriber connected to the IP address as Burla on Sept. 12, records show. A detective found Burla was a suspect in a case involving similar activity on Kik in 2020, according to the arrest report.

During the investigation, a Broward County judge issued a search warrant for Burla’s Kik account on Sept. 26 and a search warrant for his home in Hollywood on Wednesday, records show.

Broward County prosecutors filed a third-degree felony case against Burla on Thursday, and his defense filed a written plea of not guilty, according to court records.

Burla faced 12 charges: 10 counts of possession, control, view, or solicit depiction of child porn, person in state transmission of child porn, and compiling, entering into, or transmitting child porn by use of a computer. His bond was $60,000.

Broward County Circuit Judge Michael Lunch was set to preside over the case.

SWAT team surrounds Hollywood man’s home over images on Kik sexually exploiting girls

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Andrea Torres