Child pornography from the 1960s found in North Carolina man’s attic, feds say
Child pornography stored in a North Carolina man’s attic dated back to the 1960s, officials said.
Law enforcement agents were searching 72-year-old Raul Ayala Jr.’s home in Harnett County when they found the decades-old illicit photos and seized his electronics, federal prosecutors said Tuesday in a news release.
Now, Ayala is accused of having a role in making child pornography from at least 2016 to 2018. He faces prison time after pleading guilty to production of child pornography, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina.
When reached by email, an attorney representing Ayala declined McClatchy News’ request for comment.
The Fuquay-Varina Police Department, which serves a suburb southwest of Raleigh, started to investigate Ayala after he was accused of child molestation, according to prosecutors.
“Ayala admitted to touching the child,” officials said in their news release. “He also admitted he had taken some nude photographs of the child, but insisted they were innocent photographs. In addition, Ayala admitted he had molested children in the 1970’s.”
While executing a search warrant, officials found pornographic pictures inside a briefcase in Ayala’s attic, according to the release.
“In the briefcase were Polaroid pictures of nude minor children, dating back to the late 1960’s and early 1970’s,” federal prosecutors said. “On Ayala’s digital devices, law enforcement found lascivious images of the minor child who disclosed sexual abuse along with child pornography unrelated to the minor child.”
Investigators with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security tracked down one of the people in the Polaroids, who said Ayala molested him, according to prosecutors.
In 2019, a judge ordered Ayala to have no contact with one of his accusers, court records show.
Ayala, who lives in the town of Angier, entered a guilty plea on Tuesday. While the court hasn’t set his sentencing date, he faces 15 to 30 years in prison, a U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesperson told McClatchy News.
This story was originally published April 27, 2021 at 3:42 PM with the headline "Child pornography from the 1960s found in North Carolina man’s attic, feds say."
