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Stafford Man Held On Assault, Child Pornography Charges

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Stafford Man Held On Assault, Child Pornography Charges

November 16, 2008

SHAWN R. BEALS

The Hartford Courant

A Stafford man was being held on multiple sexual assault and child pornography charges after state police and FBI agents raided his home Friday in a federal investigation, police said.

Three children living at the home were taken into custody by the state Department of Children and Families. Reports said two of the children were boys and one was a girl, and that they were taken from school and placed in DCF custody.

One of the children had been in the care of DCF and was placed in the home as a foster child through a private agency. The DCF has started a review of that process, a spokesman said Saturday.

Craig Niles, 59, of 172 West Stafford Road, was charged with four counts of first-degree sexual assault, five counts of fourth-degree sexual assault; 20 counts of risk of injury to a minor; two counts of impairing the morals of a minor; and single counts of employing a minor in an obscene performance, promoting a minor in an obscene performance and first-degree possession of child pornography, according to Lt. J. Paul Vance, a state police spokesman.

Niles was being held on $500,000 bail for arraignment Monday.

Vance said state police detectives started an investigation after receiving information that a sexual assault had occurred at the West Stafford Road home. The FBI and the Stafford resident state trooper searched the home Friday on a federal warrant, and based on the evidence brought in the state police Major Crime Squad, Vance said.

Neighbors said officers spent hours at the house beginning Friday morning.

The DCF is cooperating with state police and is reviewing the process in which a child in its care was placed in that home, department spokesman Gary Kleeblatt said Saturday.

"Everyone who works at the department is deeply troubled by these shocking allegations," Kleeblatt, said. "DCF is reviewing the process and decision of a private child placement agency to approve the family as a foster care provider."

Kleeblatt said the DCF licenses private child placement agencies that then approve families to care for children who are in DCF custody.

2008 Nov 16