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Posted: 2:07 PM- Investigators say a former South Jordan fire captain downloaded child pornography, creating a fake profile on the social networking Web site Myspace and using it to befriend about 90 underage girls.
Michael Farnsworth, 45, of Riverton, was charged in 3rd District Court this week with two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, a second-degree felony. The Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force says he downloaded child porn onto the hard drive of a personal computer.
An investigation into the South Jordan Fire Department veteran began in July 2007 after Farnsworth's daughter discovered her father had a profile on http://www.myspace.com" Target="_BLANK">http://www.myspace.com with false information, according to charging documents.
The daughter alerted her mother to Farnsworth's account, where he listed himself as a 21-year-old single man, the documents said. Farnsworth's "friends" on the popular site were mostly underage girls, including the man's 15-year-old neighbor.
Farnsworth's wife confronted him about the profile and he said he set up the account to monitor his children's use on the Web site, the documents said.
A co-worker of Farnsworth's wife also alerted South Jordan police that the man was involved in Internet misconduct, the documents said. The case was passed to the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force because of the close relationship between the city's fire and police departments.
Farnsforth told police during the investigation he'd created two different Myspace profiles - one in 2005 that he used to monitor his daughters' activity on the Web site that he deleted when the girls stopped using http://www.myspace.com" Target="_BLANK">http://www.myspace.com, the documents said. Farnsworth opened a second account in 2007, stating he was 21-years-old and told police that he'd log on to the account several times a week where he conversed with "friends" on the site, the documents said.
Investigators examined Farnsworth's personal and city-owned computer equipment. A forensic analysis of Farnsworth's computer hard drives revealed several child pornography photos, including two listed on the nationwide Child Victim Identification Program, the documents said.
Attempts to locate Farnsworth Wednesday were unsuccessful.
mrogers@sltrib.com" Target="_BLANK">mrogers@sltrib.com