Man arrested for allegedly viewing child porn on library computer



MONROE -- One day after the arrest, Monroe Public Library patrons are just learning about what happened in what is a big family-gathering place here.

Most were floored by the allegation.

"Not right. It's not good. And looking at pornography (is) damaging, not just to the person who is looking at it but to the children who are being exploited for that,” library patron Wally Anderson said.

"I have a 13-year-old son and a 10-year-old daughter and it's sad. When I was little I could go here and be completely fine, but now it's like you have to be completely on guard of exactly what your kids are doing at all times,” library patron Stephanie Baird said.

It happened around 5 p.m. Monday.

A witness says she walked by 61-year-old Terry Farr and saw what appeared to be child pornography on his computer screen.

"She walked by actually twice, you know, kind of like did I see what I actually just saw? And she went immediately to library officials and told them what they saw,” Monroe Police Department spokeswoman Debbie Willis said.

They called police and an officer arrived in minutes.

"The officer went up to the male that was sitting at the computer, but he could see as he was approaching, he was clicking away on that keyboard really quick and when he got there it was just the log-in screen,” Willis said.

The officer found next to the computer a couple of pages of what appeared to be photographs of young girls they believe Farr printed out.

He was arrested and the library computer along with some type of digital media device Farr was carrying were confiscated.

Police plan to search both for evidence.

"It's pretty disgusting. I'm not even sure why they have it available in the library in the first place. They shouldn't,” library patron Kay Fisher said.

The Monroe library as well as others around the state and some 5,000 school districts all over the country use a filtering system called Lightspeed.

It’s mandatory on computers in the children’s area of the library but it is optional on adult computers, so adults can choose to turn it off and they are warned about accessing illegal content, but it is either on or off, filtering or not, there’s no in-between.

Library officials say in spite of that shortcoming it is among the best software of its kind on the market today.