Ellicott City Man, 71, Pleads Guilty To Possessing Child Porn

ELLICOTT CITY, MD — A 71-year-old Ellicott City man has pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography. Robert Awtrey will be sentenced Feb. 28 in Howard County Circuit Court. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children received a tip Jan. 2 that pornographic images were being downloaded to a computer belonging to Awtrey.

A search warrant executed on his home May 29 resulted in the confiscation of his computer. In a recorded statement, Awtrey admitted that he uses the internet to view pornographic images of adult women, but does not search for minors or children, according to a statement. During a thorough search of Awtrey’s home, police discovered three USB drives in a safe in the basement.

Forensic preview showed three images, one of which was a toddler, naked from the waist down, with her genitals exposed and a penis against it. Awtrey told police he was surprised those images were on his USB drives and stated that someone must have put them there because he only looks at adult women.

Prosecutors are recommending a sentence of five years, suspending all but six months. As part of the plea agreement, Awtrey must also register as a Tier 1 sex offender, forfeit any electronics involved in the case and have no unsupervised contact with minors. He has already completed a psycho-sexual evaluation.