BOSTON, Feb. 14, 2013—A Winthrop man was ordered to surrender his passport and stay away from children under 18 after his arraignment on child pornography charges, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.

In addition to those orders, Assistant District Attorney Janine D’Amico recommended $25,000 cash bail for WILLIAM KROTT III (D.O.B. 10/29/82) in today’s proceedings in East Boston District Court. Judge Roberto Ronquillo, Jr., imposed bail of $3,000 – the amount Krott posted after his arrest by Winthrop and State police yesterday.

Krott is charged with five counts of possessing child pornography and one count of disseminating child pornography. The charges stem from an online chat in which Krott allegedly took part in November 2012. During that chat, prosecutors say, Krott displayed an image of graphic child pornography.

The chat host’s monitoring system captured a still image from that chat session and forwarded it to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s CyberTip program.

The NCMEC tip was in turn forwarded to the Suffolk County DA’s office, which used an administrative subpoena to obtain the internet protocol address associated with the chat session and display of child pornography. An IP address identifies a device on a computer network – in this case, a device located within the Quincy Avenue building in which Krott lives.

Because residents of three separate apartments within that building all share internet access, State Police assigned to Conley’s office and Winthrop Police detectives undertook separate interviews with each resident. In the interview with Krott, investigators asked permission to perform a cursory examination of his computers as part of an investigation into child pornography.

Krott granted them permission. A short time later, a State trooper with extensive experience in computer forensics and the recovery of digital evidence located on Krott’s computer a folder containing at least five images of children in sexualized contexts.

Confronted with these images, Krott allegedly made statements indicating that he had downloaded child pornography onto the computer.

Krott was represented by attorney Ashley Green. He will return to court on March 22.

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All defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.