A Utah man has been accused of watching child porn on a Delta flight from Salt Lake City to Boston on Saturday afternoon.
47-year-old Grant Smith, of Cottonwood Heights, Utah, was sitting in first class when a fellow passenger saw the pornographic images on Smith's laptop and told flight crew, the Associated Press reports.
Massachusetts State Troopers interviewed Smith, asked to view his computer and arrested him when the plane landed at Boston Logan International after 4pm, CBS News reports.
He has been charged with possession of child pornography, and police say additional charges could follow. "Child pornography is a form of child sexual abuse--nothing less,” state police spokesman David Procopio said in a statement, the Washington Post reports. “Those who possess it--a crime unto itself--foster an evil network that sexually abuses and exploits children irreparably.”
ABC's Salt Lake City affiliate reports that Smith is a father of two and a professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Utah. He was reportedly in Boston for a materials research convention.
In a statement to The Daily Utah Chronicle, the University of Utah said that Smith has been placed on leave during the criminal investigation. "Professor Smith deserves a full and fair investigation into this issue," the statement said. "The University of Utah, however, has no tolerance for the viewing or possessing of child pornography by any of its employees, regardless of where it occurs."