Two military personnel investigated for alleged use of child pornography
By Scott Schonauer,
Rota bureau
NAVAL STATION ROTA, Spain — Navy investigators in Rota are
investigating two more incidents where military personnel are suspected of downloading
child pornography onto their work computers.
The latest incidents add to a growing list of child pornography cases
Naval Criminal Investigative Service agents and information system specialists have
uncovered this year.
Geoff Yeowell, NCIS special-agent-in-charge in Rota, said
investigators have relied on individual commands to notify them when personnel are
suspected of downloading child pornography.
Although technicians who monitor Internet usage have exposed an
increase in pornography, investigators do not believe recent cases are an indication of
some sort of child-porn ring.
“The only common denominator is that the porn on the computer is
child pornography,” he said.
During an ongoing effort to snuff out computer hackers earlier this
year, Navy criminal investigators and computer technicians found that sailors Navy-wide
access hundreds of pornographic sites weekly.
With special software, computers can automatically track government
computers based on key words in Web pages such as “porn,” “teen” or
“sex.”
Although viewing or downloading pornography on government computers
is prohibited, Naval criminal investigators usually do not get involved unless someone is
downloading child porn. Downloading child pornography is a felony.
Last month, the Navy charged Petty Officer 1st Class Nicholas T.
Cream for downloading images of nude children on a naval station computer. Cream, who
works at the base’s supply department, is accused of using a government computer to
view, download, copy and store the images.
An investigating officer will recommend this month whether Cream
should be court-martialed based on the evidence presented at an Article 32 hearing.
Meanwhile, the Navy has initiated an investigation into another
sailor and are reviewing two other incidents of people downloading child porn. The Navy
has not charged anyone in those cases.
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