Navy officer faces inquiry over explicit photos of girls

SAN DIEGO — A Navy officer charged with possessing child pornography is also being investigated in connection with sexually explicit photos of young girls that appear to have been taken near or at his San Diego home, according to a complaint filed in federal court.

Petty Officer 1st Class John Christian Ward was arrested Nov. 16 after agents served a search warrant at his Birdland home.

He has pleaded not guilty. He will remain detained until a hearing this week at which the potential for bail will be discussed.

The investigation began this year after the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received tips from Google that a user had uploaded 49 images of possible child porn to a Google+ account, according to the complaint.

The tip made its way to the San Diego Internet Crimes Against Children task force and on to the Naval Criminal Investigative Service once it was determined that Navy personnel were possibly involved.

The NCIS agent looked at the images and determined most to be child pornography, according to the complaint. The uploads occurred over a two-year period. A subsequent search of the account found more than 100 images of child porn, the complaint said.

An analysis showed that some images appeared to be new and not already in the databases of known child porn frequently traded online, according to the complaint. Metadata associated with those photos suggest they were taken with a Samsung Galaxy S6 in May 2016 at or near Ward’s home, the court document says.

The photos include inappropriate images of two clothed girls sitting on or near a brown couch.

Also found were fully nude photos of one of the girls in a bathroom, along with sexually explicit photos of a sleeping child.

The photos were saved separately from the other child porn, under a folder titled “something new(2),” according to the complaint.

The investigation into the identities of the children in the photos is ongoing.

When agents searched Ward’s home, no explicit images were found on his home computers. He was not home at the time, and he did not have a cellphone on him when he was apprehended.

Court records did not provide information about Ward’s assignment in the Navy.