ADAMS COUNTY — A Beaver County man was arrested Friday following a year-long investigation into alleged online communications with a 15-year-old girl.
Timothy Britton, 24, is charged with multiple felony offenses, which include criminal attempt/statutory sexual assault, unlawful contact with a minor, criminal solicitation/sexual abuse of children, obscene and other sexual materials and performances and criminal use of a communication facility. He was apprehended in his home county and is currently awaiting extradition to Adams County.
An investigation into the alleged communications began in late October of 2016 when the girlfriend of the victim’s father informed a detective of the Adams County District Attorney’s Office that an unknown male arrived at their Arendtsville residence asking for the victim. She told police that the man walked away after she confronted him about the girl being 15 years old. Before the man left, the woman took a picture of him and obtained a registration plate and the vehicle description, a black Ford Mustang.
In November 2016, she spoke with the same detective — describing the incident but adding that the man had a white translucent plastic bag that she observed contained condoms, according to charging documents. During that conversation, the detective showed the woman a photographic lineup of eight subjects — she identified Britton as the person who she spoke with.
An analysis of Britton’s Nook electronic reader revealed that he and the victim conversed on October 25 via Kik, a social media application, a few days before Britton went to her residence. Charging documents state that Britton, posing as an 18-year-old, asked the girl for her age — in which she responded 15 — and shortly after, solicited nude photographs from her. During the conversation, Britton allegedly sent the girl two photographs, one of his genitals and another of his buttocks.
Using online public information, the detective searched Britton’s Kik username and found a Facebook profile for Tim Britton. Photographs on Britton’s profile depicted him as a Cowboys fan and specifically had an image of a black Ford Mustang with the caption, “My new car.”, charging documents say. Another visible image on his Facebook page is the profile image depicted on the Kik conversation between Britton and the victim, documents add.
