‘Feels good being a child predator.’ How text messages led to Durham man’s arrest
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- FBI undercover operations allegedly linked Anthony Simpson to child sexual abuse content online.
- Authorities recovered over 1,600 videos from Simpson’s digital accounts.
- Federal proceedings are underway after the state charges were dropped.
A Durham man faces multiple federal charges after social media and phone records allegedly tied him to hundreds of files of child sexual abuse material.
Anthony William Demarcus Simpson, 37, was indicted Aug. 4 on five charges of distribution or attempt to distribute child pornography and one charge of possession of child pornography, court documents show.
Search warrants filed by Durham police indicate the investigation into Simpson began in 2024, when two FBI undercover operations into child sexual abuse material being shared in online chatrooms were tied back to Simpson’s home at the time in Rockingham County.
When police searched his home, Simpson reportedly attempted suicide and had to be committed to the hospital for mental health treatment, search warrants state.
That investigation resulted in 11 charges of second-degree sexual exploitation of a minor incidents in Rockingham County on July 23, 2023, and Nov. 26, 2023, according to court records.
Soon after those charges were filed, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children notified the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation of at least 20 tips related to child sexual abuse material. In a period spanning from July 2024 to April 2025, a number of different usernames posted more than 600 videos containing sexual material involving children, some of them infants, search warrants state.
Those videos were posted from IP addresses in Durham, which Durham police traced to Simpson. A search of his Kik and Google accounts found about 1,600 videos of child sexual abuse material and Kik messages referring to “’slipping sleeping pills’ to children,” sexually abusing a 3-year-old family member and “that it ‘feels good being a child predator,’” search warrants state.
Police seized a gray Samsung cellphone, a tablet and a Nokia phone during a July 23 search of the Durham hotel room where Simpson was staying, according to a search warrant. He was arrested on 10 charges of second-degree sexual exploitation of a minor in Durham County.
Simpson’s 21 state charges in Rockingham and Durham counties had all been dropped as of Friday afternoon because of the federal case against him, court records show.
Simpson was taken into federal custody Aug. 28 and is being held without bail, according to court documents.
