Sprague―State police have charged a local man on probation after being convicted of illegal sexual contact of someone under 16 with possessing more than 10,000 images of child pornography including nude images and videos of an adult female neighbor.

Gregory Butts, 52, who now lives in Suffield, but had lived in the Baltic section of town when police say they found the images, was charged Monday with first-degree possession of child pornography after state police obtained a warrant for his arrest. He was arraigned in New London Superior Court Monday.

In June of 2016, Butts was convicted of illegal sexual contact of a victim under 16. After 2 1/2 years in prison he was placed on 15 years of probation. One condition of that probation was that Butts could not possess devices that could record or play back images without approval from his probation officer.

In March, probation officers visited Butts’ home in Baltic. During a search of his garage they said they found a zipper pouch with seven smartphones not reported to his probation officer. Also in the pouch were a notebook and papers that police say contained the names, ages, addresses and user names of girls under 16. Butts was taken into custody and charged with violation of probation and was held on a $1 million bond as police continued their investigation.

In May, state police charged him with voyeurism after police said they found nude images and videos on one of the phones of of a young adult female, his neighbor, seemingly taken without her knowledge, while she was getting in and out of the shower.

Police continued to review the images on the seven phones. In all, they found 10,528 images of suspected child pornography on three of them as well as evidence of voyeurism. Police then sent the images to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children which found 3,502 of the images were of previously known child pornography victims.

The warrant states that when a state police detective contacted Butts’ attorney to try and interview his client, the attorney said “it was not in Butts’ best interests to participate in an interview.”

Butts, 51, was also charged in July on federal charges of possession of child pornography, attempted coercion and enticement of a minor to engage in illegal sexual activity, and making an interstate threat to injures. He faces 25 years to life in prison if convicted on the federal charges.

Editor’s note: This version corrects that Butts is charged with voyeurism in connection with incidents involving an adult female neighbor.