Oakland County man arrested for 'massive' child porn collection

An Oakland County man was arrested for a massive collection of child pornography Wednesday.  

Oakland County Sheriffs say they had been watching Timothy James Holbert for nearly a year before catching him. 

Holbert, 31, was charged with receiving and possessing child pornography, both federal crimes. 

"He was actually viewing and involved with viewing pictures of children being sexually abused at very young ages," said Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard. "All the way down to infants. (Including) 6-year-olds, 5-year-olds, infants. 

Holbert is being charged under federal law and, if convicted, faces a minimum of five years in prison. But because of the nature of the crime, it could be a lot more.

Holbert remains locked up with a bond hearing set for Friday. 

Holbert's neighbor of seven years finds it hard to believe Holbert, who lived on Dixie Lake in Springfield Township in northern Oakland County, could be involved in this terrible crime.

"People have their little quirks, their shortcomings, wow," said Kelly Morgan. "He was pretty friendly with everybody around here. He came home, was on his porch, he got into his boat and did his yard."

The investigation began in August 2014. A witness viewed Holbert looking at porn and called the cops. 

"This guy was very active in child porn, he was viewing images at an amazing rate," Bouchard said. "Eight thousand images. And these weren't casual images. These were really young kids being sexually abused.

"At this point we don't have anything to show that he's been sharing. More or less, using as a consumer. But anything is still possible and still under investigation."