ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. — An 88-year-old St. Augustine man is under arrest after thousands of images of the sexual abuse of children were found on computers and other equipment confiscated at a home, the St. Johns County Sheriff's Office said.
Tony Anastasios Tsitos is charged with 15 counts of possession of child pornography, the Sheriff's Office said. He turned himself over to Broward County authorities on a warrant and will be transferred to the St. Johns County jail and on $150,000 bail. His Facebook page says Tsitos is a psychiatrist.
The Sheriff’s Office said its Internet Crimes Against Children unit began searching in late October for whoever was using the internet to download, trade or transmit child sexual-abuse imagery from a computer within St. Johns County. A detective traced it to a home and secured a search warrant, joining the St. Augustine Police Department and seizing multiple electronic devices, the Sheriff's Office said.
Forensic downloads of a computer uncovered thousands of sexual images of children, some as young as 1 involved in various stages of abuse, the Sheriff's Office said. Based on this information, a warrant was filed for Tsitos, who had gone to the Fort Lauderdale area following the search warrant.
After learning of the nationwide warrant for his arrest, Tsitos turned himself in, the Sheriff's Office said.
