A father and son from East Lyme pleaded not guilty to possession of child pornography this morning during their first appearance in the New London court where major crimes are tried.

Brian Faford, 25, and Donald Faford, 57, both of 47 Charter Oak Drive, were arrested last month following an investigation by the State Police Computer Crimes Unit. Both of the men are free on $75,000 bonds and are being supervised by the Department of Adult Probation while their cases are pending.

According to an arrest warrant affidavit, state police executed a search and seizure warrant at the Faford home in November 2010 after a detective conducting a routine search of peer-to-peer file sharing networks found still and video images of child pornography being downloaded and shared from computers at the Faford home. A forensic examiner later reported that computers seized from the home contained hundreds of images and videos of suspected child pornography.

Both of the Fafords waived their rights and agreed to speak with Detective David Aresco while the home was being searched, according to the affidavit. Brian Faford admitted he had started looking at Internet pornography when he was 12 or 13 years old, and as he got older continued to look at pornography involving children that age along with adult pornography. He said he knows child pornography is wrong and "that by having it I contribute to the problem." He said never had sexual contact with a child and considers it "sick."

Donald Faford told Aresco that he had found pornography on his son's computer account and saved it to his own account. He said the images interested him and he began searching for more. He said he took the files to prove that his son was looking at them and never deleted them. He said he searched for pornography involving young adults, not children, using the term "teens" in his searches. Represented by attorney William T. Koch Jr., Faford works as engineer for Connecticut Light & Power, according to his court file.

Brian Faford, listed on court documents as a student at Three Rivers Community College, is represented by attorney Diane Polan. At Polan's request, Judge Hillary B. Strackbein modified an order prohibiting Faford from using computers to allow him to use a word processing program for school and to use his mother's computer to access two websites needed for his coursework. Prosecutor Lawrence J. Tytla noted the computer is subject to being searched by the probation department.