News footage of Michael David Booth aka YouTube's "Mr. Crafty Pants" during his court appearance on Oct. 23 (WAVE).
A popular content creator on YouTube was charged with sharing child sexual abuse material on another social media account.
Michael David Booth, 39, is best known as YouTuber "Mr. Crafty Pants," a content creator who has amassed an audience of hundreds of thousands on YouTube, Instagram, and other social media platforms. But according to police, his alleged activities on Kik are what landed him behind bars in his home state of Kentucky.
According to an arrest citation obtained by local NBC affiliate WAVE, an unnamed tipster reported that an account on Kik shared child sexual abuse material in August. The Kik account was investigated by police, and selfies matched to Booth were allegedly linked to the same account.
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The arrest citation stated that the IP address connected to the Kik account matched Booth's home address in Louisville. Police said that Booth was allegedly connected to three files that depicted minor children under 12 years old and three more files depicting minor teenagers under 18 years old. According to the report, the files containing the images of the younger children were allegedly shared by Booth "on at least 10 occasions." The files with the older children were allegedly shared by Booth more than 15 times.
Under his "Mr. Crafty Pants" moniker, Booth made videos of arts and crafts tutorials using smart cutting machines. He had grown his follower base on Instagram and Facebook to more than 250,000; his YouTube audience reached nearly 600,000 followers. Local Fox affiliate WDKY reported that his most recent video on YouTube was posted about four months ago.
Booth was arrested on Oct. 22 and appeared in court the following day. He pleaded not guilty to 10 counts of distributing matter portraying a sexual performance by a minor under age 12, 15 counts of distributing matter portraying a sexual performance by a minor over age 12 but under age 18, three counts of possession of matter portraying a sexual performance by a minor under 12, and one count of possession of matter portraying a sexual performance by a minor over age 12 but under age 18 (first offense).
His bond was set at $100,000, and he remains in custody at the Louisville Metro Department of Corrections. His next court appearance is scheduled for Oct. 31.
