Hayden man suspected of posing as teen, paying girls for child porn

A 59-year-old Hayden man is accused of posing as a high school boy on the messaging app Snapchat and paying minors for their sexual images.

Brett L. Nearing faces six counts of sexual exploitation of a child and one count of solicitation of a child under 16 to make child pornography – all felonies. He is in the Kootenai County Jail on a $1 million bond.

Nearing told authorities he used the image of a roughly 15-year-old boy in his Snapchat messages as his persona, according to an investigation report. He estimated there were 100 to 300 girls that provided him with sexual images of themselves at his request. He said in the court documents he traded some of those images for other images online.

Nearing told law enforcement he has viewed child pornography for 10 years and has obtained child porn from girls during chats the past three years, the report stated.

He admitted in the report that he threatened girls with distributing the images they sent him if they attempted to stop sending child pornography.

Nearing allegedly also sent sexual images of dogs and horses, according to the report.

Law enforcement in December received a cybertip report from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the report said.

The report stated a Snapchat account used an IP address traced to Nearing’s Hayden residence to distribute suspected child porn.

Nearing was arrested one week ago. He appeared for a video arraignment Thursday and is scheduled for a preliminary hearing Tuesday.