A 69-year-old Charlotte County man is facing multiple felony charges after deputies pulled him over near US-17 and Bermont Road and connected his phone to more than 500 flagged images of child sexual abuse material. Kevin McHugh surrendered his phone and handed over his house keys to deputies at the scene, and he now faces several counts of possession of child pornography images.
According to Gulf Coast News and Weather, the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office received a CyberTip report from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children before deputies moved in. The tip reportedly linked several files of child sexual abuse material to McHugh's phone, and per the arrest report cited by the outlet, deputies learned McHugh was traveling in the area of US-17 and Bermont Road, prompting the traffic stop that led to his arrest.
US-17 and Bermont Road sits along a major rural corridor in eastern Charlotte County that links Punta Gorda to inland agricultural communities, according to the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office. McHugh's cooperation at the scene — turning over both his phone and his house keys — does not resolve the case on its own. The sheriff's office notes that formal charges still hinge on digital forensic analysis to verify the file count and McHugh's knowledge of possession.
How the Tip Reached Local Deputies
The Charlotte County Sheriff's Office maintains a specialized Computer Crimes Unit within its Criminal Investigations section, tasked specifically with digital forensics and technology-facilitated exploitation cases, per the sheriff's office. That unit is expected to examine the seized device to confirm the scope of material described in the CyberTip.
Nationally, the volume of these tips has exploded. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children processed 21.3 million CyberTipline reports and 61.8 million flagged files in 2025 alone, according to NCMEC. The organization also reported that online enticement cases surged 158% year-over-year to more than 1.4 million reports in 2025, a jump it attributes to automated detection systems used by major electronic service providers.
What McHugh Could Face Under Florida Law
Under Florida Statute Section 827.071, knowingly possessing or intentionally viewing an image depicting a minor engaged in sexual conduct is a third-degree felony, and each individual image counts as a separate criminal offense, according to Hanlon Law. A conviction on a third-degree felony carries up to five years in state prison and a $5,000 fine per count, along with mandatory lifelong registration as a sex offender.
Florida prosecutors routinely pursue stacked-count strategies in these cases, filing a distinct felony charge for every separate file identified on a device, per the Law Offices of Edwards & Jones. With more than 500 images reportedly tied to McHugh's phone, that approach could translate into a substantial number of counts if prosecutors choose to pursue the full scope of the material described in the CyberTip. Separately, Florida law under Statute Section 827.072 also criminalizes AI-generated or electronically altered child sexual abuse imagery as its own third-degree felony, carrying the same five-year maximum per count, according to the Florida Senate.
Part of a Broader Enforcement Network
Local sheriffs coordinate on these cases through the multi-agency Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force network, which provides county-level departments with specialized federal and state resources, according to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Charlotte County has leaned on that kind of cooperation before — in April 2023, deputies executed a federal search warrant on Easy Street in Port Charlotte alongside the FBI Task Force following a similar CyberTip-driven lead, per WENG Radio.
The case adds to a string of recent child exploitation arrests in the area; Hoodline previously covered two Port Charlotte arrests tied to Major Crimes Unit investigations. Key questions remain open in McHugh's case, including whether deputies seized any additional devices during the consent search of his residence and whether prosecutors will ultimately file stacked counts reflecting the full 500-plus images described in the CyberTip.
