EVANS CITY — Charges have been waived to court for a Seneca Valley High School student accused of possessing child pornography on his phone.

Joshua Speicher, 19, was charged last month with felony possession of child pornography.

Speicher attended a preliminary hearing Tuesday morning before District Judge Wayne Seibel.

The charge stems from an incident last October when Speicher received three pictures on his cell phone of a 14-year-old, middle school female student with exposed breasts. He was 18 at the time.

Ryan Helsel, Speicher’s public defender, did not comment on the case, but said he has dealt with similar cases before.

“It’s not like paraphernalia or marijuana,” Helsel said of how common child pornography cases are. “But it’s not as rare as we would like it to be.”

Speicher admitted to police that he received the pictures, but did not say where he got them from.

Speicher will be formally arraigned April 19 in Butler County Court.

The police report states the anonymous female student provided Jackson Township police officer Jason Young screen shots of messages sent to her by Speicher where he asked for a “pic,” and she responded with “No.”

Speicher offered money for the photographs. However, she did not provide pictures to him.

Seibel said the girl was at the district judge’s office Tuesday morning for a conference before the hearing.

The police report states the investigation started after an intermediate high school student told juvenile probation officer Mike Trego about Speicher having the pictures.

Speicher’s phone was searched and although no other nude or inappropriate photographs were found, several “relevant” text messages were sent to students.

“The messages give details about the photos and how Speicher knew she was underage, forgot they were on his phone and that he is going to jail for having them,” the report states.

Seibel said he hears a half a dozen to a dozen child pornography cases a year.

“This was through social media,” Seibel said. “We’ve gotten other ones (cases) where people look for child porn. This wasn’t the same type of case, but it’s fielded under the same section.”

He said if convicted, Speicher could get a maximum of 20 years in prison and $25,000 in fines.