Legal Question in Family Law in Pennsylvania

Re: child pornography

You asked about child pornography.

You don't need anyone to tell you HOW ABSOLUTELY WRONG what you did was. Inadvertently leaving the camera on might be reasonable in any other room of the house. Not in a bathroom, pointed in a manner so as to capture images of someone undressing. Not only did you capture images that would be an intrusion into anyone's privacy, but you watched the images and then showed them to someone else.

Simply leaving the camera on in a bathroom was a gross violation of a number of laws and also a tort that the girl could prosecute. Recording the images is a felony no matter what the age. Recording the images of a child just elevates the crime. Showing them to another person is distribution. Now you're looking at up to a decade in prison. Your attempted deletion of the images was concealment/destruction of a evidence. Yet another crime.

I'm glad you spoke to a minister. Now speak with a therapist. Seriously. Now. The fact that you placed the camera is problem one. The fact that you watched it and showed it to another person is a whole other level.

You need to speak with an attorney about this matter immediately. There are certain steps you will need to take in order to protect yourself. And yes, you need to protect yourself. The priest-penitent privilege does not necessarily provide protection to you or your brother. If there was any privilege (and I could argue that there is none in this case) that privilege was destroyed if the conversation took place in the presence of a third person. There's nothing protecting your conversations with your brother.

One point of information is that you haven't actually deleted the images from the camcorder. The images are still resident on that device.

Good luck.

Regards,

Roger