A tip from Microsoft put law enforcement on the trail of a Carrollton man charged with possessing nearly 1 million images depicting child sexual abuse, according to court documents.

The Isle of Wight County Sheriff’s Office said in a May 12 news release that deputies had arrested Joseph Wayne Clifford, 53, that morning at his home in the Nest on 17 apartment complex off Carrollton Boulevard after “preliminary forensic examination of his electronic devices uncovered close to one million child sexual abuse images.” The investigation was conducted in coordination with the southern Virginia Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.

Court filings allege Clifford to have uploaded an image depicting a nude juvenile to Bing Image, a service by Microsoft that provides images similar to one uploaded by a user. When Microsoft alerted law enforcement, the task force was able to trace the upload to an IP address allegedly associated with Clifford.

The same day as Clifford’s arrest, Isle of Wight deputies obtained search warrants for Clifford’s car, residence and person and seized “several electronic devices” from his vehicle and apartment. Clifford allegedly admitted to owning the devices, which included a hard drive in a desktop computer that authorities say contained “over 400,000 CSAM files.” CSAM is a law enforcement acronym for “child sexual abuse material.”

Clifford is being held without bond at the Western Tidewater Regional Jail in Suffolk. He is charged with 10 felony counts of possessing, reproducing, distributing, soliciting or facilitating child pornography under Virginia Code 18.2-374.1:1. 

If convicted, he faces a prison term of one to five years on the first count and one to 10 years on each subsequent count, or at the discretion of the court or jury, up to 12 months in jail and/or a $2,500 fine per count.

The law sets a minimum five years and up to 20 years on each charge if the accused is found to have acted “in order to gain entry into a group, association, or assembly of persons engaged in trading or sharing child pornography.”

Clifford’s next court appearance is scheduled for Aug. 14.