PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. — A Port Charlotte man has been sentenced to 25 years in prison after more than 300 videos of child sexual abuse were found on his phone.
The State Attorney's Office says Matthew Cade has also been sentenced to 10 years of sex offender probation.
In December 2020, the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office says they were notified by the National Center for missing and Endangered Children about a cyber tip from Verizon regarding possible child sexual abuse materials that were uploaded to a cloud server.
The sheriff's office discovered the 300 videos - including some with children as young as 6-years-old engaged in sexual acts.
Deputies say Cade was also using the app Omegle, which allows people to talk to strangers on video.
Investigators say Cade was on live chats with children - directing them to perform various sexual acts.
Cade also chatted with adults - asking them to show him child pornography as he did "lewd acts" on himself. The state attorney's office says he confessed to recording the interactions on his phone.
