PHOENIX, AZ – A man employed as a food service worker at Phoenix Children’s Hospital was arrested this weekend on multiple charges of child sexual exploitation. 29-year-old Zackarie Parker Allbritton is facing ten counts of sexual exploitation of a minor.
The arrest occurred after the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) received an alert from instant messaging app Kik. The app’s administrators had detected one of its users possessing 23 files associated with child sexual abuse material. The case was then forwarded to the Arizona Internet Crimes Against Children (AZICAC) Task Force.
According to court documents, detectives linked the Kik account to other social media profiles, leading them to identify Allbritton as the suspect. He was employed by Sodexo, a third-party food supplier at Phoenix Children’s Hospital. Although he was not a direct employee of the hospital, Allbritton did carry out his work on the premises.
Upon executing a search warrant regarding the Kik account, authorities discovered approximately 40 files of child sexual abuse. Investigators found chats showing Allbritton had multiple exchanges about child pornography, sharing files with other users. Allbritton was arrested on Sunday at Phoenix Sky Harbor.
During an interview, the suspect admitted to exchanging child sexual abuse material via his Kik account. Allbritton, however, stated that he never downloaded or stored these files in his personal devices out of fear that his girlfriend might discover them and uncover his involvement in such heinous activities. He also asserted that he never behaved inappropriately or took any illicit photos or videos of any patients in his capacity as a food service worker.