A 36-year-old Mystic man answered charges Wednesday that he used hidden cameras to record videos of a nude 12-year-old girl and share them online.

Michael W. Landon was arrested by Groton Town Police on Friday and charged with three felonies: voyeurism with malice, disseminating voyeuristic material and risk of injury to a minor.

A bearded and bespectacled Landon, handcuffed and dressed in khaki prison clothes, appeared briefly before a judge in New London Superior Court. Landon, who is an Electric Boat employee, was in the process of posting his $500,000 bond on Wednesday afternoon.

A protective order is in place barring him from having contact with the victim, and he is being monitored by GPS.

Groton Town Police detectives started investigating Landon on April 4 when a special agent with the FBI reported that illegally uploaded videos had been traced to Landon’s address in the Groton area. The FBI, police said, had discovered eight videos of voyeuristic child nudity allegedly uploaded through an encrypted email service to Landon’s Wickr profile. Wickr is an instant messaging application that allows the exchange of encrypted videos, photos and messages.

The FBI was using a Wickr profile to uncover users who were sexually exploiting children.

The FBI said Landon had uploaded the videos in “a child pornography trading room dedicated to spy cams and voyeurism,” an arrest warrant affidavit states. Some of the videos were captured from what appeared to be a hidden camera in a bathroom. Other videos were taken in a bedroom and a living room.

Groton Town Police made connections between Landon and some of the videos shared online, and visited his Mystic home on April 4. Police said they recognized some of the rooms in the home from the videos. Police also said one of the videos was taken from a cell phone and the geographic coordinates from the video landed within a few hundred feet of Landon’s previous home in Groton.

While at the Mystic home, Groton Town Police Detective Richard Savino discovered a wireless phone charger with a hidden camera built into its base. The micro SD card inside did not contain any photos or videos but police said it had live-view capability and the was equipped to send alerts to a smart phone where the video could be recorded.

During a forensic interview on April 11, police said the alleged victim disclosed that a spy camera disguised as a digital clock had been found previously in the bathroom at Landon’s home in Groton.

During an interview with police, Landon “denied any knowledge about the hidden cameras or sharing videos online.” He claimed he did not know the hidden camera disguised as a phone charger contained a camera. He declined to answer any further questions without a lawyer. Police seized his phone.

Investigators said the same Wickr user account suspected to be Landon’s was under investigation by United Kingdom law enforcement and related to child pornography trading activity. U.K. authorities had tracked Landon’s suspected email address through an online cloud-sharing platform called MEGA, which is also popular in the child porn trading community.

Landon has not yet entered a plea.

g.smith@theday.com