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The Villages
Thursday, May 2, 2024

Villager who allegedly videoed naked granddaughters facing new sex assault charge

Earl Vincent Knight Jr
Earl Vincent Knight Jr.

A Villager who allegedly videoed his naked granddaughters is facing a new child molestation charge.

Earl Vincent Knight Jr., 74, who lives on the Historic Side of The Villages, was arrested Thursday as a fugitive from justice in Rhode Island on a warrant charging him with child molestation sexual assault. He was being held without bond this weekend at the Lake County Jail.

Knight had been free on $26,000 bond following his arrest last year by Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents at his home at 548 St. Andrews Blvd.

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. 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. They were identified as her granddaughters.

Knight is facing eight counts of video voyeurism and five counts of possession of child pornography as a result of the 2020 arrest. His bond from that arrest has been revoked as a result of the arrest on the Rhode Island warrant.

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