Utah Professor Arrested for Viewing Child-Porn on Flight

Utah Professor Arrested for Viewing Child-Porn on Flight
November 27, 2011

A Utah professor, caught viewing child porn during an airline flight, was arrested at Boston Logan International Airport on Sunday, November 27.

Grant Smith, a divorced father of two young children, science and engineering professor at the University of Utah for more than 14 years, president of a consulting company and former senior research scientist at the NASA Ames Research Center in California, was traveling to Boston to attend a conference for the Material Research Society.

During the flight from Salt Lake City, a first-class passenger sitting behind Grant Smith saw the professor looking at images on his laptop of girls as young as 5-years-old, naked or nearly naked, in sexually explicit poses. The passenger immediately took a picture with his cell phone, sent an email to a relative to notify law enforcement, and then informed the cabin crew.

When a flight attendant asked Smith to turn off his laptop, the professor started to erase the offending images. Nevertheless, police recovered 66 of them from his seized laptop and cell phone.

Grant had no prior criminal record and pled not guilty. Bail was set at $75,000. If he makes bail, he will be prohibited from having any unsupervised contact with children under the age of 16, and only allowed to use the Internet for business. The University of Utah has suspended Smith and, if the allegations are proven, he will be dismissed.

State police spokesman David Procopio issued the following statement about the arrest: “In the view of the State Police, child pornography is a form of child sexual abuse, nothing less. Those who possess it - a crime unto itself - foster an evil network that sexually abuses and exploits children irreparably. Stopping child pornographers is a critical part of our mission to protect children. Along with our federal and local partners, we execute dozens of warrants related to this wicked crime each year. One hopes there is a special place in Hell for the evil people who make, trade, and possess child pornography. Until they get there, we are committed to putting them in jail.”

For information and tips on how to protect your children online, see Travis Morgan’s book titled “Catch Me If You Know How - Internet Edition” or visit the “Catch Me If You Know How” website at http://www.CatchMeIfYouKnowHow.com.