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Man facing 937 child porn-related charges in court
Thursday, August 09, 2012
By Jeff Corcino Staff Writer
Reed A. Finnigan, 60, of Woodland, who is facing 937 child pornography-related charges, waived his right to a preliminary hearing before Magisterial Judge James Hawkins at yesterday's session of centralized court held at the Clearfield County Jail.
Finnigan is charged with 10 counts of sexual abuse of children (photograph/film/depict on computer); 537 counts of sexual abuse of children (child pornography); 10 counts of unlawful contact with children; 368 counts of design obscene/sexual materials; and 12 counts of invasion of privacy.
According to the affidavit of probable cause, on Jan. 24 a relative called the state police saying some disturbing pictures were on the defendant's hard drive.
The relative told police that last November Finnigan was observed looking at nude photos on a laptop computer late at night and witnessed it a few more times since then. The relative also noticed that Finnigan would often carry an external hard drive around with him.
When Finnigan was not at home the relative took the opportunity to examine the contents of the hard drive and found it had pictures of juvenile female relatives that appeared to be "photoshopped" where the girls' heads were superimposed on nude bodies. The girls are now aged 16 and 12.
The relative said they believed the photos were photoshopped because the pictures were of the girls' nude at a beach and they would never allow him to take pictures of them nude like that.
The relative said the bodies appeared to be of the same age as the girls themselves but said the body of the 12-year-old was a little more developed than her actual body.
The relative also found a photoshopped picture of a nude female body engaged in a sexual act with an adult male with the face of the 16-year old relative superimposed on the female.
The relative said there were approximately 40 pictures in this folder but said there were other folders on the hard drive as well.
Some of these folders contained pictures of the 16-year-old relative's private areas covered by a bathing suit and the relative recognized the bathing suit.
There were also pictures of the 12-year-old sleeping on a couch with her buttocks partially exposed. The relative recognized the couch as the one in the defendant's living room and was certain the pictures were taken when the victim had stayed overnight at his house.
On Jan. 25, the state police executed a search warrant on the defendant's residence, in which a laptop computer, an external hard drive and a desktop computer tower were seized from his residence.
Finnigan also agreed to be interviewed by police on Jan. 25 and he told the police he would tell them everything because they would find it anyway.
Finnigan admitted he had a porn addiction and said he began photoshopping images five years ago. He said he would photoshop the two female juvenile relatives onto nude bodies engaged in sexual acts.
He admitted to taking pictures of the younger girl with her buttocks exposed when she slept over at his house when she was 10 years old.
He also admitted taking a picture of the 16-year-old and enlarging the photo of her private area. Finnigan repeatedly denied using the photographs for sexual stimulation and said he looks but never touches.
On June 1, the state police computer crime unit searched the defendant's external hard drive for images that appeared to be manipulated or photoshopped.
Police were able to locate a folder labeled "working pictures," which contained subfolders such as "faces," "numbers," "original," "themes," and "to complete."
Within these folders were family photos, adult pornography, child pornography, and created adult and child photoshopped pornography.
According to the state police, it appears Finnigan used family photos of females and edited them to create pornographic images. Some of images downloaded were of nude under-aged children engaged in prohibited sexual acts.
Police found the following on the hard drive, 387 edited photos depicting nude children under the age of 18 engaged in prohibited sexual acts. The original images were of children under the age of 18 who had no knowledge the defendant was photographing them. Many of the pictures were taken when the children were wearing bathing suits.
Five hundred and thirty seven images were found of child pornography depicting nude children under the age of 18 engaged in prohibited sexual acts.
Ten images were found of the now 12-year-old female relative sleeping on a couch. The pictures were taken between July 9-16 of 2010. The pictures were of the girl sleeping with her buttocks either partially or fully exposed. It appears the defendant had pulled down her panties as she slept on his couch. There were also two photos of the girl's private area.
Police also discovered two images of the 16-year-old female taken in 2008 when she was 12. She was wearing a bathing suit and she was in a squatting position and her private area was the focus of the images.
Finnigan is incarcerated in the Clearfield County Jail on $50,000 straight bail.
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