Man with child porn arrested at border

PORTHILL - A United States citizen was arrested earlier this month after allegedly getting his car stuck while attempting to sneak into Canada with a laptop computer containing child pornography.

Scott Andrew Henry was arrested by the U.S. Border Patrol near Porthill on May 3. The Border Patrol announced Henry's arrest on Tuesday.

Henry is charged with transporting child pornography into the United States. Henry apparently succeeded in crossing from Canada into the U.S., but failed in his attempt to return to Canada, according a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court.

Henry was arrested after a border patrol agent encountered a red Dodge Neon wedged into the gate and stuck in sand on the unimproved road at about 4:30 p.m. Henry told the agent he was camping in the area.

Agents followed the lone set of tracks left by the Neon with British Columbia plates and discovered the barbed wire fence had been breached along the border. Agents noted Henry had lacerations on his hands consistent with taking down barbed wire, the complaint said.

Henry, a U.S. citizen whose age and hometown were not disclosed, told agent he did not encounter a fence where he had crossed into the U.S. from Canada, according to the complaint.

Henry was arrested on suspicion of illegal entry into the U.S. because he did not pass through a designated port of entry. A laptop discovered on the front seat of the Neon was running an Internet-based mapping program and had a Global Positioning System unit hooked up to it.

Agents also discovered a counterfeit armed forces identification card and an assortment of computer devices including internal hard drives and removable data storage cards and drives.

During questioning about the illicit contents of the laptop, Henry told agents he owns a computer repair business in Castlegar, B.C., and the laptop contained the contents of customers' computers, the complaint said.