Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Porn | Man Blames Accident For Addiction To Child Porn

By Edward Lewis elewis@timesleader.com
Staff Writer

PITTSTON - A man allegedly told investigators he became addicted to child pornography after an accidental download.

That addiction  led to the discovery of 48 videos and three images of children engaged in sex acts on a computer owned by Walter Edward Bell, according to charges filed.

Bell, 34, of Gidding Street, Pittston, surrendered while accompanied by his attorney, Jair Novajosky, Tuesday at the office of District Judge Fred Pierantoni.

He was arraigned on 51 counts of possession of child pornography, four counts of dissemination of child pornography and a single count of criminal use of a computer. He was released after posting $1,000 of $10,000 bail.

The charges were filed after an investigation by the Luzerne County District Attorney’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, Pittston police, state police and the Delaware County Criminal Investigation Division.

According to the criminal complaint:

A Delaware County detective was on the Internet conducting an undercover investigation on Nov. 29 when she noticed a computer sharing 13 files of child pornography.

The computer was traced to Bell’s residence in Pittston, the criminal complaint says.

On Dec. 22, investigators seized a computer tower, an external hard drive, digital storage devices and numerous compact discs and DVDs.

Bell admitted to investigators, according to the criminal complaint, that he had used special software to download child pornography for the last two or three years. He would use certain key words to search for images of children engaged in sex acts, and was interested in videos and images of 13-year-old girls.

Bell told investigators, he "accidentally downloaded child pornography and became addicted to it," the criminal complaint says.

He claimed he tried to stop by deleting the videos and images from his computer.

A forensic examination of his computer tower revealed 48 videos and three images of children engaged in sex acts, according to the criminal complaint.

Pierantoni ordered Bell not to access the Internet and to disconnect service to his house. The district judge also ordered him not to have any unsupervised contact with children.

A preliminary hearing is scheduled on May 25 before Pierantoni.

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