TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – According to a report from WTXL, Eric Hancock, 35, a Tallahassee IT specialist, has been arrested after admitting to investigators that he regularly downloads child pornography to stop his “urges” to physically act on a child.

The Leon County Sheriff’s Office arrested Hancock on Thursday, December 6, 2018.

LCSO deputies were conducting online investigations in October using a specialized law enforcement network, CenturyLink, developed to identify offenders sharing child pornography. Hancock was identified by a device located in Hancock’s Tallahassee home which had multiple files of child sex abuse material.

The North Florida ICAC Task Force, made up of LCSO, Florida Department of Law Enforcement, and United States Department of Homeland Security investigators – obtained a search warrant for Hancock’s home on Thursday.

Hancock was forthcoming to investigators after being interviewed, admitting he had an ongoing problem and used the child abuse material to assuage his urges, which he had been involved with “since I was a kid.”

During the last few years, Hancock admitted to deputies that he had been downloading the material and deleting it once he had viewed it, then use special software to “wipe” the files from his hard drive in order to evade detection by authorities or his wife.

Hancock elaborated that he had downloaded the files to stop his “urge” in order to avoid acting out physically his lascivious desires on a child. Hancock later recanted this statement, saying he would never act on any of these urges or hurt a child.

Being an IT specialist gave him an advantage when evading detection, but it is unclear how Hancock “slipped up” this time. Hancock told investigators he had kept logs of his activities and a digital log on his cellphone, which deputies found later.

The log referenced the term “CP” with a handwritten entry by Hancock that stated, “I slipped today. Looked at CP.”

Hancock is charged with two counts of possession of obscene material of sex performance of a child, and 15 counts of possession of a photograph of sexual performance by a child and taken to the Leon County Detention Facility.

Hancock’s bond has been set at $85,000.