A villager who filmed videos of his granddaughters undressing in a spare bedroom in his home has been sentenced to probation for sex offender.
Earl Vincent Knight Jr., who lives in the historic side of the villages, indisputably pleaded in Lake County court Monday to five counts of possession of child pornography and eight counts of video voyeurism. He is placed on probation for five years and will have to register as a sex offender. He must also pay $ 3,136 in legal costs. In addition, he is prohibited from having contact with the victims in the case. Court records indicate that the victims, his granddaughters, were present for the sentencing.
Knight will not walk freely. He is being held on a Bristol County, IR, arrest warrant, charging him with child abuse / second degree sexual assault. Details of the alleged crime have been sealed.
Knight was initially arrested on October 27, 2020 at his home at 548 St. Andrews Blvd. by agents of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. When officers arrived at his home on the day of his arrest, Knight provided passwords for his phone, iPad, and desktop computer and admitted to watching pornography on his computer using Periscope, according to an arrest report. When an agent began asking questions about the videos recorded inside the home Knight has occupied for more than five years with his wife, he called for a lawyer and stopped cooperating.
FDLE agents extracted several images of a 16-year-old girl and a 12-year-old girl apparently undressing at the home of Knight and his wife, who have been married for more than 40 years. The “girls’ buttocks and bare breasts can be seen in the video,” according to the report.
Knight’s wife told investigators she was aware of the surveillance cameras installed inside and outside their home, but had no idea that there was a hidden camera that “would have captured anyone undressing in private, ”according to the report. When shown three of the pictures, Knight’s wife started to cry. She identified the surveillance daughters as her granddaughters.
The Massachusetts native was on bail when he was arrested again on October 21 under the Rhode Island warrant.
