Published: July 24, 2009 11:23 pm      

Carrolltown man charged with having child porn

EBENSBURG — The owner of a Carrolltown bar was arrested Friday by the state police Computer Crime Task Force on allegations that he downloaded child pornography onto his home computer.

Gerald G. Lowmaster, 62, of the 300 block of North Main Street, Carrolltown, was arraigned before District Judge Fred Creany on a single charge of sexual abuse of children.

Authorities said he had eight child-porn videos on files in his computer’s hard drive.

The video files depicted children younger than 18 engaged in sexual acts, police said.

Lowmaster, who could not be reached for comment, was released on $25,000 unsecured bond under supervision of the county’s pretrial services program.

A preliminary hearing is scheduled Aug. 25 before Creany.

Lowmaster is the owner of Jerry’s Tavern on North Main Street.

He appeared voluntarily before Creany for the arraignment.

Lowmaster’s arrest stemmed from an investigation by Trooper Glenn Bard, an expert in computer crime who was conducting an undercover investigation into the sharing of child pornography in January via what was identified as the Gnutella Network, according to a probable cause affidavit.

Police said they tracked down 33 instances of sharing of child pornography on Lowmaster’s computer between Sept. 24 and Feb. 26, when the computer was seized by the state police.

Bard found the eight videos were stored in a folder named “Song,” according to the affidavit.

Those eight video files were sent to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children for comparison with the center’s “known victim” database.

It was learned that two of the eight video files were part of the “known victim” database, said Brian Sprinkle, a detective.

The sex abuse charge was filed by Sprinkle, who is with the Ferguson Township police in Centre County and is a member of the state police task force.

Sprinkle said in the affidavit that Lowmaster admitted downloading the videos “because he was curious, and it was not for any type of sexual gratification.”