Raleigh resident arrested on twenty child pornography charges after sting by "Predator Poachers"
The defendant's residence is also apparently the location of an in-home studio for a photographer whose website contains images of fully unclothed infants
Daniel Bondowski, 52, of Raleigh, was arrested today and charged with twenty counts of second degree second exploitation of a minor for the possession of child sexual abuse material involving victims as young as five.
Bondowski was brought to the attention of the Raleigh Police by Alex Rosen, founder of Predator Poachers, with whom he has identified, confronted, and extracted confessions from online predators across the country à la Chris Hansen’s To Catch a Predator.
The Sting
In the video recorded on July 25 at Bondowski’s residence in the East Raleigh suburbs, Rosen confronted Bondowski about inappropriate messages he sent to a decoy Instagram account posing as a 13-year-old, ultimately leading to Bondowski confessing to a Raleigh Police officer that he had child pornography on his cell phone, which he admitted to obtaining from “four or five” group chats on Telegram.
In a post on Twitter/X, Rosen confirmed that the police officers had seized Bondowski’s phone after his admission and the evidence provided by Rosen.
Charges
After nearly three months, Bondowski was arrested by the Raleigh Police and charged with twenty counts of second degree sexual exploitation of a minor, with the two arrest warrants listing twenty separate videos which Bondowski is alleged to have received via the Telegram messaging application capturing the rape of children between ages of five and twelve.
“I give a lot of credit to the officers on-scene for understanding the urgency of preserving the evidence based on his admissions, there was definitely a lot of child porn on that phone as the charges show,” said Rosen in a statement to the Triangle Trumpet.
“A big thank you to whichever detective forensically examined his phone and had to unfortunately see all that was on there,” Rosen continued. “It was a great team effort by from Predator Poachers and Raleigh PD to put a very dangerous pedophile away for hopefully a very long time.”
Second degree sexual exploitation of a minor (NC GS § 14-190.17) is a Class E Felony which carries a maximum sentence of 31-50 months incarceration for a first-time offender.
Bondowski’s charges are under to separate cases in Wake District Court (25CR440045-910 and 25CR440046-910), and is currently being held in Wake County jail on a total bond amount of $600,000.
Red Bridge Photography
The trans/LGBTQ flag-decorated house at which the sting and arrest occurred is listed as belonging to Rebecca Faulk, who appears to be Bondowski’s fiance based on Rosen’s video and public social media posts.
The address is also listed as the location of Faulk’s photography business, Red Bridge Photography, whose offerings have included photographing newborns at an in-home studio, according to a 2021 profile, at which time Faulk claimed to be the sole resident.
The website for Red Bridge Photography includes images of fully unclothed infants; at the time of publication, Faulk has not responded to an inquiry as to whether Bondowski had ever been present for or had access to any photos of children/infants being captured.