A 27-year-old Pennsylvania man who was stationed at the Naval Submarine Base admitted to a state police investigator that he posed as a young boy to entice underage girls to perform sexual acts online, then shared videos of the acts with other people on the Internet, according to a court document.

Adam Simpson, 27, of Coal Township, Pa., was charged Jan. 7 with first-degree possession of child pornography and is being held in lieu of $150,000 at the Corrigan-Radgowski Correctional Institution. He was presented Monday in the New London court where major crimes are heard. Attorney Anthony R. Basilica entered a not-guilty plea on his behalf.

According to an arrest warrant affidavit, state police Detective Samantha McCord of the Computer Crimes and Electronic Evidence Laboratory, investigating the online sharing of child pornography files, identified an Internet Protocol (IP) address that had downloaded and shared multiple files of child pornography. McCord obtained a court order compelling the Internet provider, Comcast, to provide basic information and learned that Simpson was the subscriber.

Police executed a search warrant served on Simpson's apartment in Navy housing in November, seizing a Dell laptop computer containing more than 500 pornographic video files. McCord conducted a preliminary forensic review of the laptop determined at least 50 of the videos depict children under 16 engaged in graphic sexual acts.

Simpson admitted that he is attracted to girls ages 10 to 16 and routinely searches the Internet for "preteen hardcore pornography," according to the affidavit. He said he used various message boards and peer-sharing files to download child pornography. He said his intent was not to share the files, but that they might have been shared.

He also admitted to using online video chatting tools to entice young girls to "get naked and sexual." He said he used videos to impersonate young boys "so as to deceive and entice young girls to be sexual and get naked for him so that he could record them." He said he used "mental domination" to control the girls and used "blackmail," threatening to publish their recorded sexual acts if they did not perform more acts for him.

Simpson's next court date is Feb. 10.

A Navy spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment.

— Karen Florin