A Villager convicted of shooting videos of his granddaughters as they undressed at his home has registered as a sex offender.
Earl Vincent Knight Jr., who will turn 75 on Dec. 26, registered Tuesday with the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles as a sex offender, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. He registered his address at 548 Saint Andrews Blvd. on the Historic Side of The Villages. In his registration, he indicated he has several registered vehicles, including a brown 2015 Lexus, a black 2004 Toyota, a blue 2001 Buick, a gray 2010 Lexus and a 2005 Honda motorcycle.
He continues to face a second degree child molestation/sexual assault charge in Rhode Island. Details of the alleged crime have been sealed.
Knight was placed on sex offender probation in November after pleading no contest in Lake County Court to five counts of possession of child pornography and eight counts of video voyeurism.
Knight was originally arrested Oct. 27, 2020 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.