Wednesday, May 19, 1999
Repairs led to kid porn material
BY DAN HORN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
When his personal computer broke down last month, William Martin Stroup took it to a technician to find out what was wrong. What the technician found, prosecutors say, could send Mr. Stroup to prison for 54 years.
They say a grand jury indicted Mr. Stroup on 12 counts of pandering obscenity this week after the repair shop discovered several computer files related to child pornography.
“This is a very disturbing case,” said Hamilton County Prosecutor Mike Allen. “Law enforcement basically found out about this by accident, and it makes you wonder how much more is out there.”
He said investigators think Mr. Stroup, 57, downloaded the sexually explicit material from the Internet.
Mr. Stroup also is accused of copying the material onto computer disks, which he kept at his home in Norwood.
The charges carry a maximum possible sentence of up to 54 years in prison and a $105,000 fine.
Mr. Allen said the case against Mr. Stroup began to unfold last month when the defendant took his computer and scanner to the Micro Center Computer Store in Sharonville for repair.
While trying to fix the scanner, Mr. Allen said, a computer technician found a list of several suspicious file names in Mr. Stroup's computer.
Some of the files had sexually explicit titles, prosecutors said.
The technician called Sharonville police, who joined the Regional Electronics Computer Intelligence Task Force (RECI) in the investigation.
Mr. Allen said investigators searched Mr. Stroup's home and discovered more sexually explicit images involving children. “This case exposes the perverted underbelly of the Internet,” Mr. Allen said.
Because Mr. Stroup's home is across the street from an elementary school, prosecutors have asked Norwood police to investigate whether Mr. Stroup has ever been a threat to children. So far, Mr. Allen said, there is no evidence of problems with children from the neighborhood.
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