A former behavioral health technician at Phoenix Children’s Hospital may face multiple felony charges in connection with accusations that he possessed child pornography, according to court documents.
Jaydeep Patel, 31, was arrested July 17 on suspicion of sexually exploiting minors after an internet service provider tipped off police that he had child sexual abuse materials on his user profile, documents said.
The Phoenix man was accused of nine counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, according to court documents. Each count is a Class 2 felony.
Such felonies carry a prison sentence of three to 12 and a half years for first-time offenders who are convicted.
Phoenix Children’s Hospital stressed that patient safety is a top priority, according to a statement sent to The Arizona Republic. Patel is no longer an employee there, and the hospital is fully cooperating with law enforcement, the statement said.
The internet service provider submitted a tip to Phoenix police after finding that one subscriber, later identified as Patel, possessed nearly two dozen media files that it described as child pornography in September 2024, documents said.
Authorities obtained search warrants to review records associated with the user’s social media accounts, internet service provider, email accounts and cell phone number. They were able to get the user’s location from the internet service, according to documents.
During their investigation, authorities linked Patel to the address, along with his phone number, documents said.
The social media service also provided police with Patel’s chat exchanges, in which he gave his phone number, location, physical description and occupational information, documents said.
Patel would also request in the chats “child sexual abuse materials for his personal sexual gratification,” and openly admitted to liking young girls and being a “pedo,” according to court documents.
Nine video files were recovered from Patel’s social media account, court documents said. In them, young, grade-school-aged girls were either depicted exposing themselves or engaging in sexual conduct, according to documents.
After obtaining a warrant from a Maricopa County Superior Court judge, Phoenix police detained Patel at his home July 17, documents said.
Patel was scheduled to appear in Maricopa County Superior Court for a status conference hearing July 24 and a preliminary hearing July 28, according to court records. Patel was being held on a $100,000 bond, court documents said.
Shawn Raymundo covers Phoenix and Scottsdale. Reach him at sraymundo@gannett.com or follow him on X @ShawnzyTsunami.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Former Phoenix hospital worker accused of accessing child porn