Uniontown man charged with possession of child pornography
A Uniontown man charged with possession of child pornography told officers that he believed he “would get caught some day for it.”
Officers with the state Attorney General and state police executed a search warrant at the Morgantown Street home of Jerry Ray Moore, 69, on Thursday morning.
On March 22, officials with the AG’s Child Predator Section were able to make a direct connection with an IP address, later identified as Moore’s IP address, that had previously downloaded child pornography, according to a criminal complaint filed by Special Agent Philip J. Larcinese III.
Agents continued to monitor Moore’s IP address and file-sharing habits through April and obtained Moore’s name through his internet provider, court records state.
On Thursday, Moore agreed to speak with investigators and admitted to viewing child pornography on his computer, Larcinese wrote.
Investigators recovered a desktop computer that had at least one pornographic file during the search of his home. They also recovered an external hard drive that had at least 15 apparent child pornography files, according to the affidavit.
“(Moore) admitted to knowing it was illegal to possess child pornography,” Larcinese wrote. “He admitted to trying to stop looking at child pornography in the past. However, he always failed at quitting and is always drawn back.”
Larcinese wrote that a bulk of the files — both video and images — contained young girls between 2 and 12 years of age involved in sex acts with adults.
Several video files were submitted to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The agency responded with information that they were known video files with identified victims, according to court papers.
Moore was charged with three counts of disseminating photos/videos of children in sex acts, 16 counts of possession of child pornography and a single count of criminal use of a communication facility.
Moore was placed in the Fayette County Prison in lieu of $300,000 bond. He faces a preliminary hearing on May 10.