Professor pleads guilty to looking at child porn on flight to Boston; gets to fly back home to Utah now

A Utah professor today acknowledged he viewed sexually explicit image of little girls as he flew to Boston for a professional conference in 2011, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.

In East Boston District Court, Judge Roberto Ronquillo, Jr. gave Grant Smith a 2 1/2-year suspended sentence for possession of child pornography and five years' probation, which he will serve in his native Utah, after registering as a sex offender, the DA's office reports.

Had the case proceeded to trial, Assistant District Attorney Sarah McEvoy of [DA Dan] Conley's Child Protection Team would have introduced evidence and testimony proving that Smith was seen viewing explicit child pornography on his laptop computer by a fellow passenger on a Nov. 26, 2011, Delta flight from Utah to Boston.

The evidence would have shown that the passenger notified authorities and that Massachusetts State Police met the plane at arrival. Smith consented to their preliminary review of his computer, a MacBook Pro. That review, along with a subsequent forensic examination of its contents, led to the recovery of multiple still images depicting young girls between the ages of 5 and 14 years old, some naked and some engaged in explicit sexual activity.

At the time, Smith was a materials-sciences professor at the University of Utah.

Part of the condition of his probation is that he have no contact with any children under 18 unless they are accompanied by a parent or guardian who know of his conviction, the DA's office says. adding he is barred from schools, day-care centers and other places where children might congregate, without prior permission from probation officers. A judge will decide on his visitation rights for his own children.

He's also barred from Internet use except for work or to "contact the mother of his children about visitation or to contact his attorney, and he must allow authorities to search his computer unannounced."