ALTOONA, Pa. (WTAJ) — An Altoona man, who is facing 50 felony counts of child pornography, claims the images were research for a book he was writing, according to the Office of the Attorney General (OAG).

Court documents show that 69-year-old Dennis Page is facing 50 felony charges of child porn and one felony charge of criminal use of communications facility after a three-month-long investigation by the OAG.

According to the criminal complaint, the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) task force was alerted by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in August 2022 before it getting assigned to an investigator in the OAG that was also part of the nationwide task force.

The investigation led to the home of Page on Ivyside Drive in Altoona, according to the complaint. A search warrant was executed on January 19 where investigators said they found Page on the second floor of the home.

Page allegedly told investigators that he knew why they were there. While interviewing him they found that he was in his bedroom looking at child pornography images on his laptop when they started knocking. He told them he quickly hid his laptop under his mattress when they came in.

The complaint shows that Page told investigators he and a woman were molested when they were children and he was inspired to write a novel, titled ‘Held,’ about the incident. He allegedly told investigators that he would start clicking links that would take him “wherever,” claiming at first he didn’t realize he was looking at teenagers.

Investigators report that Page claimed he was working on his novel for the last four or five years. It was also noted in the complaint that he wasn’t able to tell them where he saved his draft on his laptop, nor what the name of the file was.

Page admitted to looking at these images five days a week, but claimed he was never aroused while looking at them although he would masturbate afterward, the complaint reads.

Page was arrested by the OAG and ICAC task force and placed in Blair County Prison with bail set at $50,000.