Police: Southie man charged in global child porn network

Boston Herald

Police: Southie man charged in global child porn network

By Laura CrimaldiFriday,
January 29, 2010


Investigators probing a South Boston man who allegedly amassed one of the world’s largest child-porn collections found movie files showing girls as young as 5 or 6 years old having sex with men, records show.
George A. Shipps, 47, who has a criminal record going back to 1975, was held this morning on $100,000 bail on one count of possession of child pornography and one count of distributing child pornography.
A state police arrest report states a depraved movie depicting young girls engaged in sex acts was one of 16,000 child porn files officers allegedly found last night on file sharing software on Shipps’ computer.
Shipps, a father of five adult children, allegedly confessed when officers showed up at his home, said Assistant Attorney General Christopher Kelly.
“He admitted he had child porn on his computer system. He admitted it was his,” said Kelly. “He said he didn’t know what he would do if his children were the ones depicted in these files.”
Shipps pleaded not guilty to both counts at his arraignment in South Boston District Court. He is due back in court on Feb. 26.
Kelly said Bay State authorities began investigating Shipps earlier this month after being informed he was sharing thousands of child-porn files by Pennsylvania law enforcement.
Child pornography is typically swapped using special file sharing software, Kelly said.
Shipps’ criminal record includes 18 entries on his juvenile record and 55 entries on his adult record, Kelly said. He added Shipps spent time in jail in 1990 and 1994. Among the charges on his adult record are assault and assault and battery on a police officer, Kelly said. Court records show he received psychiatric care for violence.
His court-appointed attorney said Shipps denies the charges and described the technology used by investigators to trace child porn as flawed.
“There are things he says are pop-ups,” said defense attorney Robert Menton. “I believe a lot of it is hunch rather than solid information.”
Menton also questioned Kelly’s claim that Shipps had amassed one of the world’s largest child porn collections.
“I haven’t seen a list and I don’t believe there’s a list,” he said. “It has very little relevance to the case at all.”
Menton said Shipps was recently laid off from his store manager position at True Value Hardware in Newton. He said Shipps attended Quincy College and previously worked for eight years at Home Depot.
A female associate of Shipps who was in court declined comment.

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