Man faces prison for peeping, child porn

NORRISTOWN >> A Horsham man was sent to prison after he admitted to possessing child pornography and to secretly photographing a teenage girl with a hidden camera.

Scott Francis Raila, 42, of the 400 block of Walnut Street, was sentenced in Montgomery County Court to 4-to-8-years in a state correctional facility after he pleaded guilty to charges of manufacturing child pornography, invasion of privacy, possessing an instrument of crime and possessing child pornography in connection with incidents that occurred between 2016 and 2018.

Judge Todd D. Eisenberg also ordered Raila to complete five years’ probation following parole, meaning Raila will be under court supervision for 13 years.

With the charges, prosecutors alleged Raila used a secret recording device to record a person who was unaware that they were being recorded in a state of nudity and essentially created images that constituted child pornography.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Matthew Brittenburg and co-prosecutor Alexandria MacMaster. Raila was represented by defense lawyer Samuel C. Stretton.

At the time of Raila’s guilty

plea, Brittenburg said the crime represented “an invasion of the security of one’s home and sense of security or safety.”

Authorities uncovered the invasion of privacy scheme when they viewed images found on Raila’s

computer during a separate investigation of allegations that Raila was disseminating child pornography from his computer.

The initial investigation of Raila began on Feb. 8, 2018, when an undercover detective, conducting online searches for people possessing and sharing child pornography on the Internet, located a computer linked to Raila that

allegedly was engaged in such activity.

Detectives made a direct connection to Raila’s computer and downloaded eight files and five videos that depicted children under the age of 18 engaged in sexual acts or poses, according to the criminal complaint.

When detectives went to Raila’s home on March 27, 2018, with a search warrant,

Raila admitted to downloading child pornography but claimed the sharing of it was “unintentional,” according to court documents. A forensic examination of Raila’s computer subsequently uncovered 50 videos and 99 photos that constituted child pornography, detectives alleged.

But during the forensic examination of Raila’s

computer, detectives also found videos that appeared to be secret recordings of a teenage girl in a state of nudity in a bathroom. The victim, detectives alleged, did not appear to be aware that she was being recorded.

“In another video, a video recording device appears to be surreptitiously planted in the corner of the bathroom, partially hidden

or obscured on the floor, with an upward view,” detectives alleged in the criminal complaint.

Detectives were able to identify the victim, who knew Raila, and link Raila to having had access to the victim’s residence. The victim denied ever giving permission or consent to be filmed and said she was unaware she was being filmed.