Cooper City man admits to getting child sexual abuse images from ‘Russian websites,’ cops say

Matthew Hayes (BSO)

COOPER CITY, Fla. — A Cooper City man is facing nearly a dozen felony charges after sheriff’s deputies accused him of uploading child sexual abuse images to an Amazon account.

According to court documents obtained by Local 10 News on Wednesday, the investigation into Matthew Thomas Hayes, 51, began last March with a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies said NCMEC had tipped authorities off that Hayes had uploaded three illicit photos to an Amazon Photos account.

Deputies said they went to Hayes’ home, located in the 5100 block of Southwest 101st Terrace, on Friday to speak with him and found him there along with his mother.

They said they showed him images from the account and he admitted to recognizing one of them, a lewd photo of a girl roughly 5 to 8 years old with a “.ru” watermark on it, indicating a Russian web domain.

Deputies said Hayes admitted to visiting “Russian websites” to look for child sexual abuse material.

They said a search of his iPad revealed dozens of illicit files depicting children as young as 3.

Deputies arrested him on 11 counts related to the possession of child sexual abuse material.

Hayes was not listed in BSO jail records as of Wednesday morning.

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About The Author
Chris Gothner

Chris Gothner

Chris Gothner joined the Local 10 News team in 2022 as a Digital Journalist.