A Carbon County man accused of downloading child pornography has had his charges bound over to Carbon County Court.

Derek Hedmeck, 25, of Lehighton, was scheduled to have a preliminary hearing Wednesday before District Judge William Kissner of Palmerton.But, he opted to waive his right to a hearing, and will appear next month for a pretrial status conference in the district attorney's office at the Carbon County Courthouse in Jim Thorpe.Hedmeck faces three counts each of sexual abuse of children and criminal use of communication facility.He remains free in lieu of $5,000 unsecured bail.According to the affidavit of probable cause filed by Trooper Brian Silliman of the Pennsylvania State Police, on Sept. 30, 2012, Silliman was contacted by the Palmerton Borough Police Department, who said that they had a cell phone in their possession, which contained child pornography.Silliman said that the cell phone was found at the Bowmanstown Diner on Sept. 29 by a Palmerton resident.Silliman obtained the cell phone, which was forwarded to the Computer Crimes Unit for analysis, where it was determined to contain child pornography.On Feb. 19, 2013, a search warrant was executed at Hedmeck's residence in Franklin Township.Hedmeck agreed to speak with Silliman in regards to the ongoing investigation, admitting that he was the owner of the cell phone, which he lost at the Bowmanstown Diner.Hedmeck also acknowledged that he downloaded the child pornography contained on the phone.A laptop, hard drive and thumb drive were also obtained.There was child pornography found on these items, which were also forwarded to the Computer Crimes Unit for analysis.On Feb. 20, 2013, Hedmeck arrived at Pennsylvania State Police Lehighton to be interviewed, at which time he acknowledged that he downloaded the child pornography onto his laptop in 2010 using "Limewire" or "Frostwire."Hedmeck said that he searched using the words "barely legal" and "mafia" when the name "Jenny" popped up.He downloaded the files and viewed them, and said that he viewed images of a young girl he thought was to be between 12-13 years old.He added that he continued to download child pornography for a period of one week to one month.Hedmeck then said that he used "a downloader" (free ap for cell phones) to download child pornography, and that he did back up his cell phone onto his computer.Hedmeck said that he searched using the same words and downloaded files under "mafia sex."He also acknowledged intentionally searching using the name "Jenny" and downloaded a video, which he believed was the same young girl he previously viewed.Trooper Scott Sotack of the Computer Crimes Unit said that he analyzed Hedmeck's cell phone and found 54 images and two videos depicting child pornography.Hedmeck's laptop and hard drive, and that the laptop contained nine images and six videos depicting child pornography.The hard drive contained 13 images and four videos depicting child pornography.