A Warren man is behind bars on charges after conversations with an online vigilante group led police to the discovery of his possession of child pornography.

Anthony W. Engle, 58, of 27 S. Carver St., was charged by City of Warren police on Dec. 28.

Police say they were contacted on Feb. 6 by a member of the online vigilante group “Predator Poachers,” who claimed to be speaking with Engle while posing as an 11-year-old girl.

“This conversation,” police allege in the affidavit of probable cause, “was sexual in nature and Engle did send multiple pictures of his penis.”

The member of Predator Poachers told police that they revealed to Engle that he was not speaking to an 11-year-old and, per the affidavit, Engle allegedly responded that “he messages a lot of juvenile females and has received photographs from juvenile females before.”

City police subsequently sought and obtained a search warrant for all of Engle’s electronic devices. That warrant was then served at 900 Lincoln Ave., Apt. B. Police say no contact was made and officers forced entry into the apartment, seizing two cell phones and a thumb drive as a result of a search.

Police obtained another warrant to access the contents of those devices, which was approved in July.

The data was transferred to the Elk County DA’s office for data extraction, which allegedly revealed “images/videos of child porn.”

City police met with investigators with Homeland Security on Dec. 8 to review the images found on the phone. A member of the Homeland Security Child Predator Unit said that “well over 100 images” taken from the devices are “considered child pornography due to the nudity, age and sexual interactions.”

Investigators allege further that one of the children in the videos/images was confirmed to be under 18 via a child porn database.

Engle was arraigned Friday morning by District Judge Raymond Zydonik and placed in the county jail in lieu of $50,000 bail, online court records show.

He faces three counts each of child pornography and criminal use of a communications facility.

A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Jan. 10.