Lowell firefighter faces child porn charges

A Lowell firefighter was arrested recently and now faces child porn and human trafficking charges. 

Authorities say David Silva, 35, paid underage girls to send him sexually explicit material via Snapchat over a number of months last year. 

Silva, who lives in Chelmsford, was arrested earlier this week and arraigned in Wrentham District Court. He was charged with possessing child pornography, posing or exhibiting a child in a state of nudity, and human trafficking, according to court documents. 

Silva pleaded not guilty to all charges. He posted bail and was ordered to stay away from and have no contact with the alleged victims and witnesses, to have no unsupervised contact with anyone under 18, and to not use social media. 

In court documents, police identified Silva as a full-time firefighter for the Lowell Fire Department. Lowell officials could not be immediately reached for comment Thursday. 

Late last December, family members of an underage girl came to the Millis Police Department. They were concerned that she was using drugs and talking to men inappropriately via Snapchat. They told police that the girl and the man, later identified as Silva, were sending naked pictures back and forth and had been in contact since the summer. The family members told police that they believed the man to be a firefighter, but did not know where. They said his name was “James” and gave police the Snapchat account name associated with the man, according to a police report. 

Officers spoke with the girl to discuss her private conversations with the Snapchat user “jamessss144.” She told police that she had been sending him naked photos in exchange for money for months. All told, “James” sent around $500 to her, according to the police report. 

Authorities also discovered that the man had been in contact with the girl’s sister, who also had sent naked pictures in exchange for money. She provided police with the man’s phone number and Venmo account name. With this information, police identified Silva as the alleged perpetrator, according to the report.  

Snapchat responded to and complied with a search warrant. Police discovered “hundreds of photographs and videos of what appeared to be juvenile females performing sexual acts in bedrooms, bathrooms, school bathrooms and school classrooms,” according to the report. Over 10 different Venmo accounts were found to be saved in the Snapchat user’s logs. 

Snapchat also provided officials with eight different reports that the company had received about the user “jamessss144.” The account was reported for sending inappropriate material and “spam” friend requests, according to the court documents.

One report contained the comment, “asking for feet pics when I was 16 and he was 20.” Another report contained the comment, “send me unsolicited videos of him rubbing his penis. I dont [sic] know this man, he is very weird. I am very uncomfortable,” according to the report. 

Paypal, the company that owns Venmo, also responded to and complied with a search warrant. Police used the personal information of the associated Venmo account to confirm that it belonged to Silva. The account had sent close to $7,000 to various other accounts from June to December of 2024, according to the report. 

One Venmo payment contained the comment, “It’s James. Can I pay you for feet pics? My money is stocking up and becoming burdensome.” Another contained the comment, “Blocked me for no reason again? You are a very hard person to pay, I dont [sic] understand,” according to the report. 

Police traced two IP addresses to the online activity: one that belonged to the Lowell Fire Department on Gorham Street and another that belonged to Silva’s Chelmsford residence. Police will seek a search warrant for the Chelmsford property, according to court documents.  

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