By Julie Manganis
Staff writer
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SALEM — A 48-year-old Salem man has been charged with possessing and disseminating hundreds of images of child pornography through a file-sharing program.
Police and prosecutors allege that Mark McConnell of 19 Osborne St. was using "peer-to-peer" file-sharing services like Limewire to download explicit photos and videos of girls, believed to be as young as 7, in a variety of sexual situations.
"The fact that this defendant enjoys watching images of children who have been kidnapped, raped and tortured is disturbing," prosecutor Colleen Cashman said during a bail hearing for McConnell.
Salem District Court Judge Michael Uhlarik set bail for McConnell at $10,000.
Cashman, citing a state police report, described how a state trooper working with the Berkshire County district attorney's office was investigating child pornography on peer-to-peer services when he saw one user log on, on the morning of June 15.
The trooper noted the IP address of the computer (a unique number that is assigned to a computer connected to the Internet) and then was able, through a feature of the file-sharing program he was using, to connect to the computer and view a file directory.
Based on what he saw — a list of file names with graphic descriptions — he asked prosecutors to subpoena the identity of the person who had that Comcast IP address.
After Comcast complied and provided McConnell's name, detectives in Essex County got a warrant, Cashman said.
McConnell was arrested at his home Wednesday. Police seized his computer and are now in the process of searching it. So far, they have turned up more than 700 pornographic images of children.
If convicted, McConnell faces a minimum mandatory 10-year prison term. Cashman said it's also possible that federal prosecutors may take over the case, which she called "disturbing."
Defense lawyer Patrick Regan said his client wants to return to court to fight the charges, arguing there's no evidence that McConnell shared the images police say they found on the computer.
He also questioned whether the IP address and other identifying information could have been duplicated and used by someone else.
McConnell is a former marketing executive who has been unemployed, Regan said. In his efforts to find work, the lawyer said, McConnell has been taking classes at the New Horizons Computer Learning Center, hoping to be retrained in a new career.
A status hearing is scheduled for July 14.
