CHINA GROVE ó A 52-year-old China Grove man has been charged with secretly taping a 9-year-old girl after authorities searched his home in a child pornography investigation.
Mitchell Perry Wright, of 770 Mount Moriah Church Road, is charged with five counts of third-degree sexual exploitation of a minor and three counts of secretly peeping into a room with a female, a Rowan County Sheriff’s Office press release said.
The charges come after a joint investigation conducted by members of the Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigation Division, the State Bureau of Investigation and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the press release said.
Wright had been under investigation by local, state and federal authorities for possible possession of child pornography, according to the press release.
“During the investigation, detectives discovered images of a 9-year-old child that had been obtained by a secret recording device,” the Sheriff’s Office said in its statement. The recordings were made when Wright lived at 121 Myrtle Goodnight Road in China Grove, the press release said.
The statement said Wright “had apparently possessed a recording camera in his bathroom at his home during a previous period. The images had been recorded digitally. The juvenile victim’s family has been contacted and the investigation continues.”
Wright was in the Rowan County Detention Center this morning under bond totaling $41,000 on the separate charges.