A Villager who shot videos of his granddaughters as they undressed in a spare bedroom at his home has been sentenced to sex offender probation.
Earl Vincent Knight Jr., who lives on the Historic Side of The Villages, pleaded no contest Monday in Lake County Court to five counts of possession of child pornography and eight counts of video voyeurism. He has been placed on probation for five years and will have to register as a sex offender. He must also pay $3,136 in court costs. In addition, he is prohibited from having contact with the victims in the case. Court records indicate the victims, his granddaughters, were present for the sentencing.
Knight will not walk free. He is being held on a Bristol County, R.I. warrant charging him with second degree child molestation/sexual assault. Details of the alleged crime have been sealed.
Knight was originally arrested Oct. 27, 2020 at his home at 548 St. Andrews Blvd. by agents from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. When agents arrived at his home on the day of his arrest, Knight provided passwords for his phone, iPad and desktop computer and admitted he looked at pornography on his computer using Periscope, according to an arrest report. When an agent began asking about videos recorded inside the home Knight has occupied for more than five years with his wife, he asked for a lawyer and stopped cooperating.
FDLE agents extracted multiple images of a 16-year-old girl and a 12-year-old girl who were apparently undressing in the home of Knight and his wife, who have been married for more than 40 years. The girls’ “bare buttocks and breasts can be seen in the video,” the report said.
Knight’s wife told investigators she was aware of surveillance cameras set up inside and outside their home, but had no idea there was a hidden camera that “would have captured anyone undressing in private,” the report said. When she was shown three of the images, Knight’s wife began crying. She identified the girls in the surveillance as her granddaughters.
The Massachusetts native was free on bond when he was rearrested this past Oct. 21 on the Rhode Island warrant.
