Campton resident faces incest, bestiality charges

CAMPTON — A Campton man was arraigned on Thursday for several sex-related felonies, including incest and bestiality.

Christopher G. Adams, 51, faces seven charges of incest and four charges of bestiality, as well as charges of cruelty to animals and violation of privacy.

Campton Police Chief Kevin Foss said his department began investigating Adams last year on suspicion of sex-related violations. In November 2024 officers searched his home, where, Foss said, investigators found digital recordings which serve as evidence for the charges.

It took a while for police to charge Adams, however, because he was suddenly hard to find. According to a post on the Campton Police Department Facebook account, Adams had allegedly relocated to Manchester. On Jan. 17, police believed Adams had returned to Campton, but when they searched his property on Route 3, they were unable to find him. Police believe he was able to hide until searchers left, then slipped out a back window and fled.

Adams was apprehended on Jan. 29 in a residence in Manchester. When the home was first searched, including with a dog, Adams wasn’t found. However, a subsequent search located him in the basement, using insulation panels to conceal himself.

In a hearing at Plymouth District Court on Jan. 30, Judge John Katsirebas ordered Adams detained until trial, explaining he found reason to believe the defendant might flee from justice or represent a risk to the broader community.

In doing so, Katsirebas agreed with the argument put forward by Cayla Slaughter, prosecutor for the Campton Police Department.

“Mr. Adams is so sexually deviant that he is a danger to others in society,” Slaughter told Katsirebas to open the hearing.

Slaughter characterized Adams as someone who sought out women in vulnerable states — people who were addicted to drugs, engaged in sex work or who were financially desperate — and used those vulnerabilities to coerce the women into sexual acts which he would record.

A search of Adams’ laptop revealed some of those recordings. As described in affidavits filed with the court to support of the prosecution’s argument against bail, Adams often wears masks in the videos, though did not conceal a distinctive tattoo on his abdomen.

The videos depict Adams engaging in sexual acts with an adult woman, allegedly a close relative of his, which support the six felony charges of incest.

Other videos on the laptop allegedly depicted Adams, again masked, engaging in sexual acts with a different adult woman, also masked, who is simultaneously engaging sexually with a male dog. The dog is tied to a post during the videos, and at times is shown being pushed toward the woman.

Additionally, Slaughter told Katsirebas, the search history on Adams’ laptop showed that he was looking for other videos of incestuous relationships, sometimes combined with the search terms “young” and “smoking crack cocain.” [sic]

“Essentially, he’s looking for kiddie porn materials,” Slaughter said, though there wasn’t any evidence he ever found any.

She also told Katsirebas that Adams is concurrently facing prosecution on drug charges and theft of services, the latter of which stems from an allegation he was stealing electricity from the New Hampshire Cooperative, a situation allegedly discovered when there was a fire at his home.

“Mr. Adams has a relatively extensive criminal history,” Slaughter said, including recent charges of domestic violence, stalking and assault, as well as older convictions including criminal threatening and assault.

Slaughter said she has prosecuted prior cases involving Adams, and she was concerned he would contact the witnesses and co-defendants in an effort to undermine the state’s case.

“If Mr. Adams is allowed to be free in the community, a lot of the co-defendants in this case might be too scared to come to court. The state has concerns about the integrity of the case,” Slaughter said.

She also called Adams “100% a flight risk,” noting he told one of the U.S. Marshalls who captured him on Jan. 29 that if he were to be released on bail, no one would ever see him again.

Allison Schwartz, defense attorney, countered that she had represented Adams in previous cases and he had no history of missing his court dates. She said he would be willing to live at his mother’s home in Auburn, and would agree to orders of no-contact for other people involved in the case, as well as an order to stay away from animals and observe a curfew.

Schwartz said Adams would be pleading not guilty on all charges.

“We are asking for Mr. Adams to be released on personal recognizance bail with conditions,” Schwartz said, noting he has lived in New Hampshire for his entire life.

Schwartz said the sexual relationships he was alleged to have were with consenting adults.

“There is no evidence that he forced [the woman] to have sex with him, or that he had sex with anyone under 18,” Schwartz said. She added his internet search history should not have any bearing on his ability to remain free.

“The word ‘young’ is relative,” Schwartz said, and didn’t necessarily mean underage. “While looking up incest porn is distasteful to many of us, it is unfortuantely a frequent search term on those sites,” she said.

The judge found the state’s argument to be more compelling, however.

“Based on the totality of what I’ve heard today, Mr. Adams is a flight risk, and I do find that he is potentially a risk to the public. I am ordering preventative detention,” Katsirebas said.

Adams is due back in Plymouth District Court on Wednesday, Feb. 5, for a probably cause hearing on the incest charges.