Palmer man facing child porn charges

August 7. 2005

KATE KELLY\Frontiersman reporter

An MTA engineer and father of two was charged last week with possession of child pornography after Alaska State Troopers discovered child porn movie clips and images on his home computer, as well as a video of his girlfriend bathing her two young children that he'd secretly taped through a hole in a wall.

William W. McKechnie, 35, of Albert Hill Circle in Palmer, pleaded not guilty to felony possession of child pornography, two counts of the Class B felony unlawful exploitation of a minor and two counts of the Class C felony of indecent viewing or photography. He posted $20,000 in bail while awaiting his pre-indictment hearing in Palmer Superior Court on Friday.

If found guilty of the crimes, he could face up to 10 years in prison, Assistant District Attorney Bob Collins said. McKechnie does not have a prior criminal record.

McKechnie's girlfriend, 29, called troopers May 9 after she found "100s" of porn files, including child porn, on his laptap computer. Investigators searched his home later that day, seizing computers, CDs, floppy discs, and VHS tapes, which were analyzed by the AST Computer and Financial Crimes Unit.

Twenty-two child porn movie clips and five child porn images were found on McKechnie's computer.

When interviewed by Investigator Ruthan Josten the next day, McKechnie said he was ashamed of what he did, but admitted downloading child porn from a certain Web site.

"He estimated that he downloaded about 25 child porn movies," Josten's affidavit stated, adding McKechnie told her has never done anything to his girlfriend's daughter. "He once accidentally pulled her pants down while wrestling and he was 'visually sick.'"

McKechnie's girlfriend told Josten that she had met him six weeks prior through a dating-related chat room on the Internet and had been living with him for one month.

On July 22, while reviewing the VHS tapes seized at McKechnie's home, Josten found a recording of a little girl of about age 7, and a boy of about age 2 in a bathroom.

"It was obvious watching this recording that the children and an adult woman, who places the children in the bath, were not aware they were being recorded," Josten's affidavit stated.

When McKechnie's girlfriend saw the tape, she confirmed she was the woman on the tape and that she was bathing her two children, ages 9 and 18 months. She said she did not realize she was being taped.

"The genitalia of the children were exposed on the tape recording," the affidavit said.

On July 25, Josten interviewed the young girl and she recalled that one time she was sitting in a room belonging to McKechnie's 12-year-old son while they were watching a skateboarding movie and his son turned to her and said something like, "My dad and I are videotaping you." The girl said that when she asked his son about that, he pointed to a hole in the wall in the corner of the room.

"[She] stated she could see the hole but did not get up to look closely at it," Josten said in her report.

The next day, Josten received a search warrant and went back into McKechnie's house to look for camera recording equipment and/or surveillance equipment. When McKechnie was asked about it, he said he only wanted to videotape himself with his girlfriend and did not intend to capture the children on the tape.

"He put the timer on the camera and the children went into the bath," Josten's report stated, adding that McKechnie admitted that he did not tell his girlfriend about the recording. "He saw the recording later when he put it on a VHS tape that was in his VCR."

McKechnie was arrested that day.

According to Collins, there was some fear that McKechnie was a flight risk because he had reservations to go to Thailand in September, but McKechnie told the court the trip was work-related and that he doesn't even possess a passport.

McKechnie was ordered to remain in Alaska while out on bail, to stay away from his girlfriend and her children, and to not have any contact with minors.

Contact Kate Kelly at

352-2284.