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TALLAHASSEE, FL – Attorney General Bill McCollum today announced a Sarasota County man has been taken into custody and will be charged with possession of child pornography. Clayton E. Smith, Jr., 31, was arrested by law enforcement with the Attorney General’s CyberCrime Unit and Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office after investigators discovered Smith had multiple images of child pornography in his possession.

CyberCrime investigators located images of child pornography during a routine investigation and traced the images back to Smith’s computer. A search warrant was executed at his Venice home where one laptop and a cell phone were seized. The items removed from the home will undergo forensic analysis to identify any additional images of child pornography. An initial review of his computers revealed multiple images of child pornography including some of children as young as six years old.

Smith will be booked into the Sarasota County Jail and will be charged with 20 counts of possession of child pornography, a second-degree felony. The Sarasota Police Department also assisted with the arrest. The agencies involved are all members of the Central Florida Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force.