Fort Worth-area teacher used messaging app to share child porn, prosecutors allege
A 35-year-old teacher who works at a middle school in the Fort Worth area used a messaging application to share child pornography, law enforcement authorities alleged Wednesday.
Stephen Corkill was charged in U.S. District Court with transporting a depiction of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct via interstate commerce, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas.
He is a seventh-grade teacher at Marine Creek Middle School in the Eagle Mountain-Saginaw Independent School District, authorities said.
Corkill used Kik, an app popular among teenagers, to share an explicit image of a girl, federal prosecutors alleged.
Kik flagged the image as having a hash value associated with known child pornography. After it verified the image was indeed pornography, the company reported it to law enforcement, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Homeland Security Investigations agents subpoenaed the subscriber information for the IP address associated with the upload and traced it back to Corkill, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
An iPhone with Kik installed was found during a search of Corkill’s residence, prosecutors said. Under questioning, Corkill acknowledged he was the sole owner of the Kik account, which he said he used to view child pornography, prosecutors said.
If he is convicted, Corkill faces a maximum of 20 years in prison.
The Eagle Mountain-Saginaw district said in a statement that school officials had not been contacted about the investigation or Corkill’s arrest until they heard Wednesday from reporters.
“We are reaching out to local authorities and placing the employee on leave pending results of the investigation,” the district said.
A district spokeswoman declined to say what subject Corkill taught or release the date he was hired.
This story was originally published April 8, 2020 at 3:36 PM.
