Stevens guilty of 16 child porn charges

A Belknap County Superior Court jury yesterday afternoon convicted Ronald Stevens, 46, of 16 counts of possession of child pornography. After a two-day-long trial that included the viewing of 105 projected images of some of the hundreds of illegal photos and videos that were discovered on the former Belmont mans laptop computer in April of 2004, the jury deliberated for more than 8-hours before reaching its unanimous decision.

All of the charges against Stevens are Class B felonies, punishable by 3 1/2 to 7-years in prison. Sentencing will be held at a later date.

After the verdict was announced, acting County Attorney Wayne Coull said he charged Stevens with 16 crimes based on the gender and activity displayed in the illegal images. "If each and every suspicious image had been charged, there could literally have been hundreds of charges," he said.

Stevens stood trial for the same offenses in May of this year but the jury impaneled at that time could not reach a unanimous verdict.

The state's key witness against Stevens was his former wife Linda Dutile, whose report to police led to the confiscation of the laptop.

Larry Amos, a computer forensic examination expert for the State Police also testified that every bit of storage on Steven's computer was painstakingly copied and examined. He said he identified hundreds of suspicious images and when compared with the FBI's database of know child pornography images, many matches were found.

Stevens was represented by Laconia attorney Matt Lahey, who pointed the finger at one of Dutile's daughters as a likely computer user who downloaded the offending images. Dutile, under cross-examination by Lahey, revealed that her daughter had confessed to downloading pornography.

Investigating and trying cases like the one against Stevens are very difficult for all involved, Coull said Wednesday afternoon, because police, prosecutors, court staff and, ultimately, jurors find themselves being forced to observe and examine images showing the often brutal abuse of young children.

Coull teaches the investigation and prosecution of Internet and computer crimes to law enforcement officials throughout the country and has also taught the subject of Internet safety to students and adults.