POCATELLO — A 34-year-old local man was recently arrested and charged with 10 felonies for possessing and distributing child pornography following an investigation by the Idaho Office of the Attorney General, court records show.

Joshua Christopher Tompkins, of Pocatello, is currently incarcerated at the Bannock County Jail after the Attorney General's Office Internet Crimes Against Children, or ICAC, Task Force discovered over 100 videos or images depicting child porn that had been distributed from two of his electronic devices last month, according to police and court records the Idaho State Journal obtained Monday.

Between July and December 2022, a Meridian police detective and Caldwell police detective working for the ICAC Task Force used investigative techniques to identify and locate child porn that was being distributed from Tompkins' devices using BitTorrent, an online peer-to-peer file sharing network, according to police records.

The child porn included images and videos of toddlers and infants being raped as well as bondage and bestiality involving children, police said.

The detectives were able to identify the IP addresses associated with the shared child porn materials and learned they were registered to Tompkins at an address in Pocatello, according to police.

Investigators with the Pocatello Police Department, ICAC Task Force and U.S. Department of Homeland Security executed a search warrant at Tompkins' Pocatello home on Dec. 14.

During the search, Tompkins reportedly declined to speak to investigators. The investigators confirmed that a BitTorrent download was in progress on Tompkins' phone while they were on scene, but the phone was locked and they were unable to access the phone on site, police said.

An Idaho Falls police officer took possession of the phone and used police software to circumvent the pass code and download all of the data on the phone, according to the police report. All of the data and files from the phone were provided to ICAC investigators on an external hard drive, police added.

Police analyzed the data on Dec. 16 and found numerous child sexual abuse images that depicted toddlers and infants being bound and tortured, police said. Some of the materials matched what ICAC investigators already discovered between July and December 2022, according to the report.

As a result of the investigation, an arrest warrant for Tompkins was issued on Dec. 22. He was subsequently arrested at his Pocatello home on Dec. 28.

Tompkins has been charged with eight counts of possession of child sexual abuse material and two counts of distribution of child sexual abuse material, all felonies, court records show.

Tompkins appeared in front of 6th District Magistrate Judge Steven A. Thomsen for an arraignment hearing on Dec. 29, during which his bond was set at $100,000. Thomsen also set a condition that Tompkins not possess any electronic devices if released from jail.

Tompkins appeared in front of 6th District Judge Thomas Clark for a preliminary hearing on Jan. 12, during which prosecutors presented sufficient evidence to have the case elevated from the magistrate to district court level for trial.

Tompkins will be arraigned in district court on Feb. 6 and a trial date will be set at that time.

If convicted of all 10 felonies against him, Tompkins faces 150 years in prison and a fine of up to $180,000.