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Investigators: St. Pete man had child porn on computer

Staff photo by TODD DAVIS

Christopher O'Connor is led into custody by Detective Chris McClure of the St. Petersburg Police Cyber Crime Unit today.

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TBO.com

Published: November 6, 2009

Updated: 11/06/2009 06:00 pm

ST. PETERSBURG - A St. Petersburg man was arrested today after investigators said he possessed child pornography, with some of the victims as young as 3 years old.

Christopher O'Conner, 30, was identified as a suspect after investigators found images in cyberspace and traced them to O'Conner's computer.

Chris McClure, a St. Petersburg cyberspace crime detective, said O'Conner accessed a child pornography file-sharing network on the Internet more than 300 times. He was under investigation for 13 weeks.

Agents with various law enforcement agencies raided O'Conner's home today in the Disston Heights neighborhood as part of the investigation. His computer was seized and will undergo a forensic analysis.

McClure said authorities confiscated three tower computers, five hard drives, a number of DVDs and CDs, along with a video game player.

O'Conner was renting a room in a distant relative's home where two young children live, but investigators say they are not involved in the child pornography.

The images said to be in O'Conner's possession are expected to be shared with a task force in Washington, D.C., to see if the children appearing in them can be identified.

O'Conner is expected to be charged with 20 counts of possession of child pornography. Investigators said.

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