HOUSTON – A chemical engineer for Conoco-Phillips, who has been married for more than three decades with two children, was accused of downloading hundreds of pictures containing child pornography.
Gregg Belcheff has a beautiful home on Lingwood Manor Court and a high-paying job at one of the largest oil and gas companies. Police, however, painted a different picture of the man.
Investigators with the Houston Metro Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force said they tracked him down through his computer's IP address. They said Belcheff would even carry around a thumb drive with child porn on it so he could access the images wherever he was.
They said Belcheff is a pedophile who has an obsession with underage children.
"He's an extremely sick person," Investigator JD Philpot said. "Primarily we're talking about children as young as 4, all the way to about 12 years of age."
According to documents from investigators, Belcheff is accused of collecting and trading sexually explicit images of young children. Detectives said he downloaded and shared more than 400 videos and pictures through his computer at home.
The news upset many of Belcheff's neighbors because they said the neighborhood is full of children the same age as the boys and girls he is accused of victimizing.
Belcheff was booked Wednesday but had since bonded out. Detectives said he confessed and told them he was addicted and had a sickness. He is charged with three counts of possession of child pornography. If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison.
Investigators said they do not have any reason to think Belcheff was creating any of the child porn. They said they are still reviewing files and are not ruling anything out.