Snapchat Video Showing Sexual Act Leads To Charges

A 19-year-old Bristol Township man has been charged after an investigation that started with a sexual Snapchat video, according to authorities.

In October of last year, police followed up on a report that a 13-year-old girl had received a Shapchat video of a friend, a 15-year-old girl, performing oral sex on Branden Javon Smith.

The video was extracted from the girl’s phone and showed the alleged sexual act taking place. The video was recorded from the perspective of the person receiving the oral sex, police said.

The 15-year-old girl was interviewed by police. She said she did not know a video was being recorded and learned after it was sent to her friends. The teen admitted to the incident and said it happened only once, according to police.

The girl also told investigators that Smith explained he sent the video to her friends because she would not perform oral sex on him a second time, police said.

Smith was interviewed by a detective and denied knowing the girl or having sexual contact with her, police said.

Smith, who turns 20 later this month, later requested a second interview and admitted the sexual contact happened at the Mills Crossing Apartments on Mill Creek Road in Bristol Township, police said.

Smith was arraigned this week by District Judge Robert Wagner on charges of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse on a person less than 16 years of age, knowingly films a child under 18 in a prohibited sexual act, disseminating film of a child sex act, child pornography, statutory sexual assault, indecent assault on a person less than 16 years of age, and unlawful dissemination of an intimate image. He was sent to the Bucks County Correctional Facility in lieu of 10 percent of $75,000 bail.

Editor’s Note: All individuals arrested or charged with a crime are presumed innocent until proven guilty. The story was compiled using information from police and public court documents.

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