CRANBERRY TWP — Charges were amended Friday, Jan. 27, for a man accused of possessing and sharing nude photos of a female student while working for a private security company at Seneca Valley High School.

Matthew A. Cowan, 24, of Brackenridge, appeared for his preliminary hearing before District Judge Kevin Flaherty on charges filed by township police in December.

Cowan waived his right to a preliminary hearing Friday after Detective Matthew Irvin said his charges were being modified.

According to documents, Cowan initially was charged with felonies which included 14 counts of child pornography, 20 counts of disseminating photos of child sex acts and 20 counts of criminal use of a communication facility for incidents that occurred in 2021.

Cowan worked at the high school for Securitas Security Services USA, which provided security at the Seneca Valley campus, police said.

A female student, who was between 16 and 17 years old in 2021, told police she sent nude and sexually explicit photos to Cowan for about eight months before the beginning of the 2021 school year, according to the affidavit.

Irvin said in the affidavit that two people reported receiving nude digital images of the girl from an unknown source through Snapchat and Instagram.

Instagram records show an account used by Cowan sent 14 nude or sexually explicit images and videos of the girl to at least seven people on at least 20 occasions between Aug. 21 and Aug. 23, 2022, according to the affidavit.

Irvin said the amendments withdrew all charges related to the possession of child pornography and modified the complaint to include seven charges for attempting to distribute child pornography, four charges for the distribution of child pornography and 11 counts of criminal use of a communication facility.

Irvin said charges were amended to better reflect who received the inappropriate photos in Pennsylvania.

“(Cowan) was in South Carolina distributing these,” he said. “We were able to find 11 people in Butler County that received the messages. The other ones were out of state.”

Cowan also is facing charges filed by Jackson Township police for inappropriately touching a 17-year-old female student on a trail behind the campus in August 2021. Cowan worked as a security guard at the middle school at that time.

In that case, the charges against him were held for court at a preliminary hearing in November 2022. Those charges are felony counts of aggravated indecent assault, sexual contact with a school student and criminal use of a communication facility, and misdemeanor charges of indecent assault and strangulation.