Utah professor denies watching child porn on plane

2011-11-30 06:39:57 GMT+7 (ICT)

BOSTON (BNO NEWS) -- A Utah professor who was arrested at Logan International Airport in Massachusetts last week has pleaded not guilty to charges he watched child pornography while on a Delta plane, prosecutors said on Tuesday.

47-year-old Grant D. Smith, who is a professor of material science and engineering at the University of Utah, was arrested at Logan International Airport near Boston on Saturday after a fellow passenger claimed to have seen Smith viewing child pornography on his laptop.

After the fellow passenger informed the flight crew, a flight attendant asked Smith to shut down his computer but instead began deleting images. State troopers were later able to recover at least 66 images depicting young girls between the ages of 5 and 14 years while naked and some engaged in sexual activity with adult males.

"These weren't photos of a child in the bath that a parent might keep," said Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley. "These were explicitly sexual and extremely disturbing."

Nonetheless, Smith said he is innocent and pleaded not guilty to possessing child pornography. Judge Kenneth V. Desmond imposed a bail of $75,000 and imposed a series of conditions which Smith must abide if he posts bail.

If he is convicted of possessing child pornography, Smith faces up to 5 years in a state prison and will have to register as a sex offender. The Utah professor will return to court on December 27.

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2011-11-30

Sounds pretty much open and shut... images found on his computer.

Internet must have increased occurrences of child porn worldwide, funny how it is often citizens of 'developed' countries who are addicted to this stuff.

I don't see how a not-guilty plea would help this guy. He's going down.

I don't see how a not-guilty plea would help this guy. He's going down.

Ching ching Jingthing

saw on Television recently a doco showing prisoners that were charged with sex with a minor and pedo's etc

Those poor bastards were fricken terrified! they were targeted 24/7 by the prison population. One of the sleez bags was so frighten for his life that he kept on violating prison conduct codes so he could spend the whole 2 year sentence in solitary confinement.

great documentary.

If it's true, it goes to prove my theory that just because you can get a degree it doesn't make you clever or sensible.

Only an idiot would carry child porn on a plane as it is always a possibility that customs will check your computer for just such.

Sounds pretty much open and shut... images found on his computer.

Internet must have increased occurrences of child porn worldwide, funny how it is often citizens of 'developed' countries who are addicted to this stuff.

I suspect citizens (not all of course) of developing or under-developed countries are doing much more than watching child porn on their notebooks.

Sounds pretty much open and shut... images found on his computer.

Internet must have increased occurrences of child porn worldwide, funny how it is often citizens of 'developed' countries who are addicted to this stuff.

I'm not sure you are right here.

http://www.abigmessage.com/pakistan-top-global-consumer-for-animal-child-and-rape-sex-porn.html

Since 2005 or so, Pakistan – a Muslim country – has been consistently ranked top in searches for “sex”, “animal sex”, “horse sex”, “donkey sex”, “camel sex”, “dog sex”, “rape pictures”, “rape sex”, “rape sex videos”, “child sex” and “child sex videos” according to Google Trends and Google Insights – Google’s tools that generate search data on the Internet. There are other sex-related parlances originating from Pakistan which cannot be named for the purity of those reading this article.

Land of the pure indeed. and I suspect even Utah is developed by comparison.

Edited November 30, 201114 yr by Steely Dan

saw on Television recently a doco showing prisoners that were charged with sex with a minor and pedo's etc

Those poor bastards were fricken terrified! they were targeted 24/7 by the prison population. One of the sleez bags was so frighten for his life that he kept on violating prison conduct codes so he could spend the whole 2 year sentence in solitary confinement.

great documentary.

I thought sex offenders were always segregated for their safety. I also read that you can request solitary on admission to prison? Perhaps depends on which country the prison is.

Too bad for him he isn't a professor of some kind of field where he could connect it to "academic research". Material science and engineering, not a chance.

If it's true, it goes to prove my theory that just because you can get a degree it doesn't make you clever or sensible.

Only an idiot would carry child porn on a plane as it is always a possibility that customs will check your computer for just such.

Wonder what drew the other passengers attention. Was the professor spanking the monkey on the plane....... new meaning to the mile-high club

If it's true, it goes to prove my theory that just because you can get a degree it doesn't make you clever or sensible.

Only an idiot would carry child porn on a plane as it is always a possibility that customs will check your computer for just such.

Wonder what drew the other passengers attention. Was the professor spanking the monkey on the plane....... new meaning to the mile-high club

Cheeky monkeys spying on other people's screens.

saw on Television recently a doco showing prisoners that were charged with sex with a minor and pedo's etc

Those poor bastards were fricken terrified! they were targeted 24/7 by the prison population. One of the sleez bags was so frighten for his life that he kept on violating prison conduct codes so he could spend the whole 2 year sentence in solitary confinement.

great documentary.

I thought sex offenders were always segregated for their safety. I also read that you can request solitary on admission to prison? Perhaps depends on which country the prison is.

Was a state in USA cant remember which one

Only an idiot would have any sort of porn on his lappy.

Only an idiot wouldn't have a file shredder on his lappy.

Unless it wasn't his computer, or someone else had access to it for a period of time before him etc..

Unless it wasn't his computer, or someone else had access to it for a period of time before him etc..

Now that's an interesting point. People might want to be extra careful buying used computers.

Amazing! 16 posts so far and no one threatening to castrate the accused, and lets not forget that he is accused, not convicted. Scott presents a very possible explanation. Perhaps someone else puts the stuff on his computer, and he opens it by chance, not knowing what it was. Someone sees it before he can close it again, and we have the case as reported.

It's easy these days to come across pretty vile stuff without trying to find it.

Yes! The old "A big boy did it and ran away" defence

It's easy these days to come across pretty vile stuff without trying to find it.

I regret to say that thought often springs to mind reading this very forum.