Rochester man appears on possessing, sharing child porn charges

(ABC 6 News) – A Rochester man appeared in Olmsted County Court Tuesday on six charges of possessing child pornography–minor under 14 and four charges of disseminating, or sharing child pornography–minor under 14.

Brenden Keiran Walsh, 26, is accused of sending thousands of images and videos portraying girls as young as one year old to other individuals online.

According to court documents, in April of 2024, Rochester police received a Google cybertip that allegedly pointed to Walsh’s Google account and 20 videos of child pornography.

On April 25, Rochester police executed a search warrant at Walsh’s home, where Walsh allegedly confirmed that he held the phone number and email included in the cybertip, and police seized several electronics.

Police allegedly extracted data from Walsh’s phone, and located 2,981 photos and videos that appeared to be Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM), or child pornography.

According to court documents, warrants turned up another 20 CSAM files on Walsh’s Google account, and 400-600 more files on his Facebook account.

Court documents allege that Walsh portrayed a 12-year-old girl on a chat application, and had sexual conversations with other users.

Police claim Walsh sent and received CSAM through that application.

Walsh was released on $0 bail May 28, on the condition that he forfeit weapons and firearms, avoid contact with anyone under age 18, and stay in contact with an attorney.

His next court appearance is scheduled for July 23.