Mar 11, 2015 3 min read

An Aliquippa man was arraigned early this morning after he was reportedly found this week with child pornography on his cellphone at his workplace in Hanover Township.

Michael John Bickel, 24, also reportedly admitted to investigators with the state attorney general he had sex with two 11-year-old boys starting when they were 7 in 2010 and allegedly continuing through February.

The investigation began in July when the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children forwarded a cyber tip from Google to an Allegheny County detective assigned to the High Tech Crime Task Force. Bickel was reportedly identified as the account holder. The detective checked the flagged file and found images that appear to depict children under the age of 18 engaged in sex acts. The Allegheny County detective then forwarded the information to the attorney general’s office.

Agents got search warrants for Bickel’s email account and found several emails in which messages were exchanged. About 87 images were sent as an outgoing message from Bickel’s email account. The images appear to depict boys ranging in age from 8 to 12 in various stages of undress.

Agents searched Facebook for any profiles associated with his email address. They saw several photographs of him. They also obtained his driver’s license photo and learned he was working in the Burgettstown area at Hormann High Performance Doors.

Hanover police and the agents went to Bickel’s workplace Monday and questioned him. After being told agents accessed his old email account, he was asked to give consent to search a new account.

Bickel reportedly told agents he locates child pornography through a specific website. He also told investigators he believed the person he was exchanging emails with did not live in this country. Bickel also admitted there was child pornography on his cellphone.

An agent found images and files saved on his photo gallery that included videos and photos produced by him that depicted the boys with whom he reportedly had sexual contact. During an interview with agents, Bickel allegedly admitted to engaging in sex acts with the boys, who he named. Investigators are working to positively identify the children.

Bickel was arraigned before District Judge Joshua Kanalis on charges of dissemination of photos of child sex acts, child pornography, criminal use of a communications facility, rape of a child, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, statutory sexual assault, aggravated indecent assault, corruption of minors and indecent assault of a person less than 13 years old. He was placed in Washington County jail on $600,000 bond.