Waynesboro man charged with 10 counts of child pornography, additional charges

Carley Bonk
Chambersburg Public Opinion

A Waynesboro man faces charges after police say he had multiple videos containing child pornography on his personal computer.

Daniel Lyons, 58, was charged with 10 counts of child pornography, additional counts of criminal use of a communication facility and disseminating photos/ film of a child sex act - all felonies - according to court records.

Police were alerted in May 2019 during an undercover investigation into the internet sharing of child pornography that a local computer was using BitTorrent software to share files that obtained child pornography.

Through a subpoena to Comcast Communications, police were able to obtain Lyons' address.

On May 28, a search warrant was served by police at Lyons' 7th Street, Waynesboro address. Lyons' was questioned by police, but was not placed under arrest.

Lyons informed police that he was currently unemployed, but had previously worked as an information technology technician. He then provided police with passwords for his desktop computer, iPad and iPhone as part of the subpoena.

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Initially, Lyons denied using file-sharing software, but later admitted to using Limewire, a similar program to Frostwire, the BitTorrent software police had identified with sharing the illicit materials.

Lyons said he believed Limewire and Frostwire were the same software, according to court documents.

He had also told police that he had tried to prevent sharing files, having "done a significant amount of research and believed the only way you could get caught was if that setting was turned on, which is why he believed he had turned it off."

Lyons related that he had stopped using the software a year prior, due to fears of getting caught. 

The search for child pornography began for Lyons about five years earlier, according to court documents, where he would utilize search engines with key terms, such as "PTHC (Preteen Hardcore), teen, preteen and Lolita."

He told police he had last viewed child pornography a few weeks prior and that he would masturbate to the images and save the files onto USB drives, according to court records.

Lyons would look for child pornography because "normal pornography" was not "doing it for him anymore," according to police.

Searching for videos of images of juvenile victims between the ages of 10-15 years old having sexual acts done to them by other juveniles or adults is what he said he specifically looked for, court documents read.

Lyons related that he has not committed any sexual acts against children, but that he has been "increasingly thinking about committing sexual acts against children," according to court documents.

A digital forensic examiner conducted an on-scene preview of the electronic devices previously mentioned. During that preview, 10 videos depicting sexual acts against children were discovered.

Lyons is awaiting his preliminary hearing under $300,000 unsecured bail. 

He will appear before Magisterial District Judge Annie Gomez Shockey for a preliminary hearing on June 30. 

Carley Bonk is a Watchdog Reporter for the USA Today Network - Pennsylvania. Her coverage spans across the southcentral region of Pennsylvania. She can be reached at cbonk@publicopinionnews.com or on Twitter at @carls_marie.