A prolific influencer and YouTube video creator known as “Mr. Crafty Pants” has been charged by Kentucky authorities with nearly 30 counts of possessing and trading disturbing sexual images of children on a messenger app traditionally popular with teens.
Michael David Booth, who reportedly had nearly a half million subscribers on his YouTube channel and a couple hundred thousand more on other social media, was arrested Wednesday for sharing explicit images of children on the messaging app Kik, according to numerous news reports.
The Mr. Crafty Pants YouTube channel, which has since been taken down, featured Booth, 39, offering arts and crafts tutorials. On his Instagram account, Booth describes himself as a “hot mess by nature…crafty by choice.”
On the day of his arrest, Booth had just posted himself on Instagram unboxing an unidentified product — literally shedding tears of excitement as his small dog sat on his lap.
Booth reportedly lives in the northern Louisville community of Norton Commons, an attractive, master-planned area designed to feel like a walkable, small city.
Prompted by a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that a Kik account was sharing child porn images, police started their investigation in August. The account was linked to Booth’s residence, according to a police arrest report.
Kik is known for preserving users’ anonymity, such as allowing users to register without the need to provide a telephone number or valid email address, but it is not encrypted and does log users’ IP addresses, by which they can be traced.
However, Kik has also been the subject of controversy in the past as the result of its anonymity feature, allowing teens to feel comfortable sharing controversial and explicit content.
According to the report:
According to investigators, three files depicting minors under the age of 12 and three files depicting minors over the age of 12 but younger than 18 were linked to Booth. The arrest report states that those files were distributed more than 15 times.
Local outlet WDRB posted coverage of Booth’s court appearance Thursday as well as a sign posted outside his home for Halloween that reads, “I smell children.”
“It’s scary to think what he could have had access to,” his neighbor, Laura Nash, told another Louisville station, WAVE. “It feels like a gut punch. It makes you feel really vulnerable. It’s terrifying, as a mom, to hear about something like this. It just makes you realize that you’re not safe anywhere.”
Booth was charged with possession and distribution of matter portraying a sexual performance by a minor, according to local outlets.
While the suspect’s YouTube channel is no longer available, his Facebook page was still up on Sunday.
A Louisville judge set Booth’s bond at $100,000, with the requirement that he be placed on home incarceration and not be allowed any access to the internet.
Contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the author of the New York Times best seller House of Secrets, which documents one of the worst cases of child sexual abuse in U.S. history, and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.
