Navy man’s child porn investigation extends to photos possibly taken at or near his San Diego home
A Navy member has been charged with possessing a cache of child pornography and is also being investigated in connection with sexually explicit photos of young girls that appear to have been taken either near or at his San Diego home, according to a complaint filed in federal court.
Petty Officer 1st Class John Christian Ward was arrested Nov. 16 after agents served a search warrant at his Birdland home.
He has pleaded not guilty. He remains detained until a hearing next week when the potential for bail will be discussed.
The investigation began this year after the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received tips from Google that a user had uploaded 49 images of possible child porn to a Google+ account, according to the complaint.
The tip made its way to the San Diego Internet Crimes Against Children task force and on to the Naval Criminal Investigative Service on May 1 once it was determined Navy personnel was potentially involved.
The NCIS agent looked at the images and determined most to be child pornography, according to the complaint. The uploads occurred over a two-year period.
A subsequent search of the Google account found more than 100 images of child porn, according to the complaint.
An analysis of the images showed that some appeared to be new and not already in the databases of known child porn frequently traded online, according to the complaint. Metadata associated with those photos suggest they were taken with a Samsung Galaxy S6 in May 2016 at or near Ward’s home, the court document states.
The photos include inappropriate images of two separate clothed girls sitting on or near a brown couch.
Also found were fully nude photos of one of the girls in a bathroom, along with sexually explicit photos of a sleeping child.
The group of photos was saved separately from the other child porn, under a folder titled “something new(2),” according to the complaint.
The investigation into the identities of the children in the Samsung photos is ongoing.
When agents searched Ward’s home, no explicit images were found on his home computers. He was not home at the time, and he did not have a cellphone on him when he was apprehended.
Court records did not provide information about Ward’s assignment in the Navy.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
