Back Triblive

Lower Burrell man charged for sexually abusing 18-month-old child, posting material on dark web

Triblive • September 22, 2026

A Lower Burrell man is accused of sexually abusing an 18-month-old and distributing a video of the assault on a dark-web site.

Richard Reed, 63, was arrested on Monday after police were granted a warrant for his Reed Street house, according to a criminal complaint. He was denied bail and is being held at Westmoreland County jail, according to court records.

Lower Burrell police were notified by the FBI Child Exploitation Unit that a video of an adult man sexually abusing a child were posted to the dark-web site on Sunday, the complaint said.

The video appeared to be made on a video-chatting website, the complaint said.

According to the complaint, the video was possibly created in April.

Police said they identified individuals visually similar to Reed and the victim in the video through an open-source image repository.

The man in the video had a raven skull tattoo on his inner forearm, the complaint said. Police said when Reed answered the door to them on Monday, he had at tattoo that matched.

Reed faces felonies for child sex abuse materials, unlawful with a minor, rape of a child, statutory sexual assault, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child, sexual assault, aggravated indecent assault of a child, indecent assault of a person less than 13 years of age, incest of a minor, corruption of minors and criminal use of a communication facility.

According to the complaint, Reed told police he was having impotent issue for the last few years and that he used the video-chatting site to talk to other people and look at images of underage girls.

Reed’s preliminary hearing is scheduled for Oct. 6 at 10 a.m. at District Judge Cheryl Peck Yakopec’s office.

Ember Duke a TribLive staff writer. She can be reached at [email protected] .

The full story

This article is one source in a clustered incident — the cluster page carries the summary, timeline and every other outlet covering it.

Lower Burrell Man Arrested for Child Sexual Abuse and Dark Web Distribution Richard Reed, a 63-year-old man from Lower Burrell, was arrested on September 21, 2026, for allegedly sexually abusing an 18-month-old child and distributing video evidence of the abuse on the dark web. The FBI Child Exploitation Unit alerted local police after discovering the video, which was believed to have been recorded during a video chat. Investigators identified Reed through a distinctive raven skull tattoo visible in the video. He faces multiple felony charges, including rape of a child and possession of child pornography. Reed was denied bail and is currently held at Westmoreland County jail, with a preliminary hearing scheduled for October 6, 2026. The investigation highlights the ongoing issue of child exploitation and the use of the dark web for distributing such materials. 2 sources 28

Lower Burrell man charged for sexually abusing 18-month-old child, posting material on dark web

The full story

Extracted Entities

Domains (1)

Email Addresses (1)