Man arraigned on child porn charges

Suspect a former Newnan Sunday school teacher.

A now former custodian and Sunday school teacher at a Coweta County church was arraigned Wednesday on child pornography charges stemming from an investigation that began in Canada.

Emmett Winston Smith, 66, was arraigned in U.S. District Court in Atlanta on charges of distributing, receiving and possessing child pornography. According to a news release issued by the office of acting U.S. Attorney John Horn, Smith was indicted late last month after an investigation that started with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

“In 2014, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police investigated a person on allegations that he traded in child pornography,” the news release said. “That investigation revealed that the Canadian subject had traded more than 200 e-mails containing child pornography with a person using an email address that eventually led back to a house in Newnan, Georgia.”

That information was passed on to the Department of Homeland Security, which ultimately identified Smith as the suspect. While executing a search warrant on March 5, federal authorities allegedly found child pornography on three computers at Smith’s home.

“At the time of his arrest, Smith was working as a custodian at a large church in downtown Newnan that had a preschool attached to it,” officials said. “He was also a Sunday school teacher at that same church.”

Federal authorities did not release the name of the church in question, but The Newnan TimesHerald reported that Smith was a part-time employee of First Baptist Church of Newnan. He was fired after his arrest, the paper said.