Port Charlotte man convicted of 300 child pornography videos found on his phone

PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. – A Port Charlotte man was sentenced to 25 years in prison after more than 300 videos of child sexual abuse were found on his phone.

Prosecutors said Matthew Cade was also sentenced to 10 years' probation for sex offenders.

In December 2020, the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office said it was notified by the National Center for Missing and Endangered Children of a Verizon cyber tip regarding possible child abuse that had been uploaded to a cloud server.

The sheriff's office discovered the 300 videos – including some in which children as young as six years old were involved in sexual acts.

According to officials, Cade also used the app Omegle, which allows people to talk to strangers via video.

Investigators say Cade engaged in live chats with children and asked them to perform various sexual acts.

Cade also chatted with adults and asked them to show him child pornography while he performed “lewd acts” on himself. Prosecutors say he confessed to recording the conversations on his phone.