A 66-year-old Ocala man was arrested by the Marion County Sheriff’s Office after detectives received a tip that he was in possession of digital files that contained child pornography.
On Tuesday, several MCSO detectives traveled to a residence on NE 24th Court in Ocala and made contact with Scott Melville Graham. The detectives advised him that they had received information regarding someone at the residence uploading inappropriate material involving children.
When the detectives asked for Graham’s consent to search his electronic devices, he responded by asking, “Who reported me?” The detectives advised that the report was anonymous, and Graham did not provide consent for a search.
Graham told the detectives that he spends most of his time caring for his elderly mother, and he admitted that he spends time looking up pornography on the internet. The detectives asked Graham if he was sexually attracted to children, and the MCSO report indicated that he would not provide a direct answer to that question.
According to the MCSO report, Graham stated that he might have visited some websites that had material involving children on it and he may have saved some images. He also told the detectives that if there was anything on his computer, he could “get rid of it.”
The detectives obtained a search warrant and returned to the residence. During a search of the residence, a laptop was located in the living room. Graham stated that this was his only electronic device.
Several USB flash drives were located in a trash bag inside the garage, and the report indicated that they had been reformatted to delete the contents. A digital forensics technician was able to recover 20 files containing child pornography from one of the flash drives.
Graham was arrested and transported to Marion County Jail where he is currently being held on $105,000 bond. He is facing 20 felony counts for possession of child pornography along with a felony charge for tampering.
A court date has been scheduled on Tuesday, July 5 at 9 a.m., according to jail records.