Hidden elevator led police to child porn collection Pot-growing child porn collector headed to federal prison

A secret elevator to Kenneth Smith's marijuana grow and child porn computer, pictured in a Justice Department photo. A secret elevator to Kenneth Smith's marijuana grow and child porn computer, pictured in a Justice Department photo. Photo: Department Of Justice Photo: Department Of Justice Image 1 of / 4 Caption Close Hidden elevator led police to child porn collection 1 / 4 Back to Gallery

A Vancouver man caught with thousands of child rape photos on a computer hidden in a secret room is likely headed to federal prison Thursday.

Having since pleaded guilty, Kenneth E. Smith had been collecting child porn for 12 years when the FBI came calling in July 2013. Smith had been caught sharing child pornography online and subsequently found to have hundreds of images showing toddlers and older children being sexually abused.

Asking that he be sentenced to an eight-year prison term, federal prosecutors note Smith failed a lie detector test when asked whether he personally sexually abused children. He also refused to undergo a more thorough examination of his sexual history following his guilty plea.

Facing investigators in his Clark County home, Smith tried to minimize his conduct by claiming he’d downloaded photos of older children while distraught following a breakup, Assistant U.S. Attorney Marci Ellsworth said in court papers. What investigators found, though, were more than 8,000 files showing children of all ages being raped and abused.

Smith’s “actions contributed to the demand for these horrific images of child abuse,” Ellsworth said in court papers. “Every participant in the chain – producer, distributor, consumer – sustains the market for these images, and each victim, whether identified or not, suffers not only when an image of him or her is created, but each and every time an image of him or her is viewed.”

According to court filings, Smith went to extraordinary lengths to hide his collection.

The computer was hidden on the second floor of an outbuilding on his property. To get there, investigators had to open a hidden elevator; the switch, it turned out, was disguised as a glue can.

Once inside, the tiny elevator took agents to a room packed with marijuana plants. The PC was doing double duty as a child pornography warehouse and controller for the marijuana-grow sprinkler system.

Arrested then, Smith pleaded guilty to possession and distribution of child pornography. He was free on bond prior to Thursday’s sentencing hearing before U.S. District Judge Benjamin Settle at the Tacoma federal courthouse.