Appeals Court Upholds Guilty Verdict In Danvers Child Porn Case

DANVERS, MA -- The Massachusetts Appeals Court upheld the 2015 conviction of a man who was found guilty of 10 counts of possession of child pornography. In his appeal, Jeremy Fife, 42, of Southborough, had argued prosecutors failed to prove he had knowledge that he was in possession of the images that were found on a laptop computer he used at a Danvers pool supply company. After he was arrested in 2009, Fife told Danvers Police he must have accidentally downloaded the images.

The images were downloaded from the now defunt file-sharing site LimeWire and discovered by Fife's manager at Leslie's Swimming Pool Supply on Route 1, who notified police. As part of his appeal, Fife argued that because the laptop was last accessed by his supervisor, there was no way police could determine if Fife had ever actually opened the files.

"The Commonwealth did not need to prove when the defendant last accessed the files in order to prove that he knowingly possessed them. The defendant had been using his laptop on breaks at work for a few weeks before the defendant's supervisor opened the laptop and discovered child pornography already visible on the screen," the Appeals Court said in its decision. "Therefore, after considering all this evidence in the light most favorable to the Commonwealth, we conclude that a rational jury could have found that the defendant knowingly possessed child pornography."

Fife told police he downloaded music in bulk from LimeWire and ended up deleting files he did not want, including pornographic material. But he could not provide an answer when police asked why he continued the bulk downloads after he knew he may download pornographic images.

According to court records, there were dozens of images and video clips on in a folder on the computer depicting children ranging from the ages of 2 to 16. The files had names suggestive of the sex acts they depicted.

At the time of his arrest, Fife had just moved to Southbridge from Danvers.

Subscribe to Danvers Patch for more local news and real-time alerts.

Patch file photo via Shutterstock.

Dave Copeland can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).