Homeless Man Arrested for Downloading Child Porn in Library

FRESNO – The Fresno Sheriff’s Department arrested a homeless man for using the Fresno County Library’s free Wi-Fi connection to download child pornography.

Victor Smith

A two-week investigation led to the arrest of 59-year-old Victor Smith, the sheriff’s department said.

Earlier in July, deputies noticed that a suspicious file sharing program was running through an IP address at the main library in downtown Fresno. When they paid the library a visit at around 11 a.m. on Tuesday, they caught Smith downloading child pornography less than 25 feet from the library’s children’s center, according to the sheriff’s department.

When he was caught, Smith was seated in a manner so as to conceal his screen from wandering eyes, but he could “look directly at the children in the children’s center,” said Chris Curtice, spokesperson for the sheriff’s department.

Deputies later served a search warrant at the homeless encampment where Smith lived off Santa Clara and E Street in downtown Fresno, which yielded a search and seizure of further evidence.

He was arrested and placed in Fresno County Jail, where he is facing charges of possession of child pornography.

Deputies believe Smith has been accessing and downloading the illegal pornography on his personal laptop for the last few months.

Fresno County Librarian Laurel Prysiazny said the library has filters in place in order to prevent this kind of online activity, but Smith was able to get around the security system through a file sharing program.

Prysiazny said the filtering is “not 100 percent secure,” but the library will be looking into ways to tighten their online security.

Read more:

ABC Local: Homeless Fresno man caught using library’s WiFi for child porn

The Fresno Bee: Sheriff: Homeless man caught downloading child porn at Fresno library

KSEE 24: Fresno Homeless Man Arrested for Downloading Child Porn at Public Library

CBS 47: Homeless Man Arrested for Downloading Child Porn at Library