Craigslist ad led agents to Navy tech’s stash of child porn: feds

A US Navy information systems technician who posted an explicit Craigslist ad looking for sex with a “young” girl has been busted for child porn, according to a report.

Petty Officer 1st Class Robert Houston Birchett, of Portsmouth, Virginia, appeared in court Thursday after being charged earlier in January with one count of possession of child pornography, the Virginian-Pilot reports.

“The defendant is not just someone who sat behind a computer and looked at child porn,” Special Assistant US Attorney Matthew Heck told a judge. “He actively solicited sex with minors.”

Birchett, 31, was first interviewed by investigators in November 2018 while he was assigned to US Fleet Cyber Command in Suffolk. He admitted posting candid ads on Craigslist earlier that year before the website removed its personal listings, but denied trying to have sex with a child, the newspaper reports.

“Please be young or willing to play with young,” one post read. “Be real and willing to please.”

The ads had been flagged as suspicious and agents from Homeland Security Investigating ultimately traced them back to an IP address linked to Birchett’s former home, court documents show.

Investigators then found file names indicating child porn after Birchett allowed investigators to search one of his computers, the newspaper reports.

Agents later found 83 photos and one video of suspected child porn during searches of two desktop computers and two external hard drives found in Birchett’s home. Evidence of 52 deleted images and four deleted video files were also found. Birchett claimed he got them from another military member sometime in 2008 or 2009, court documents show.

A judge ordered Birchett, who was most recently assigned to the USS George H.W. Bush, to be jailed Thursday at Western Tidewater Regional Jail after his sister accused investigators of planting the offending material on her brother’s computers, the Virginian-Pilot reports.

Birchett’s attorney, meanwhile, declined to speak to a reporter, according to the newspaper.

The Virginia man began his assignment aboard the USS George H.W. Bush in May, according to his Facebook profile, which indicates he’s married.

Birchett, originally from Wisconsin, joined the Navy in November 2008 and has commendations including a National Defense Service Medal, an Iraq Campaign Medal and three Good Conduct Medals, naval officials told The Post.