Greencastle man facing charges for sexual abuse, child pornography
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A Greencastle man is facing 46 felony charges after police say they found evidence of child pornography on his computer.
John Smith Jr., 53, is also facing allegations of sexually abusing a child.
In October 2018, an investigation was launched by Homeland Security Investigations in Pittsburgh regarding a downloadable file suspected to contain child pornography. Once an IP address was obtained, the case was transferred to the Harrisburg-York branch for further investigation.
The video depicted a 10- to 12-year-old female engaged in sexual acts.
A subpoena was served to Comcast on Nov. 27, 2018, to locate the home address of the suspected user. On Jan. 25, 2019, a search warrant was executed on a home on Buchanan Trail East in Shady Grove, according to court documents.
A witness who was interviewed confirmed that Smith has a laptop for personal use and is known to use file-sharing programs, according to police.
Smith was interviewed at his place of employment that same day. He informed police that he has been downloading pornography from file-sharing programs for several years. He said that he "accidentally" downloaded child pornography "three or four times" but "deleted it as soon as he knew what it was," court documents indicate.
A forensic investigation of Smith's device revealed that images had been downloaded depicting children ranging from infancy to 10-years-old involved in various sexual acts.
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In addition to these charges, documents related to a separate case involving Smith were also filed.
Pennsylvania State Police received a tip from Franklin County Children and Youth Services detailing a 13-year-old who reported being sexually abused by Smith.
The victim was interviewed in North Carolina. She told investigators that Smith would come into her room at night and would touch her inappropriately when he believed she was asleep. At times, he would take her hand and make her touch his genitals, according to court documents.
The victim said the abuse took place from the time she was 4-years-old until about a year ago.
Smith was put in Franklin County Jail on $250,000 bail for each case.
He is scheduled to appear before Magisterial District Judge Duane Cunningham for a preliminary hearing on Feb. 8.
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.