STOKESDALE, N.C.-- For 73-years, a Rockingham County man had a clean record. But in the past few days, Jack Griffin Knight has been charged with seven felonies.
Tuesday, the Rockingham County Sheriff's Office charged Knight, 73, with felonious Secret Peeping.
Thursday, deputies charged Knight with 6 counts of Third Degree Exploitation of a Minor. The charges are felonies.
Records show Knight also worked as a substitute teacher for Rockingham County Schools for the past seven years, but a spokesperson told WFMY News 2, since Knight was charged, "he is no longer listed as a RCS substitute." Deputies say Knight is also a former minister.
According to court records on the secret peeping accusations, Knight hid a camera in a wall mounted clock and recorded digital and audio images of his tenant.
Its unclear how long this was happening but deputies were told about the camera by Knight's tenant.
The allegations were reported on Thursday, July 31.
According to the search warrant, the tenant, "caught Jack in her bedroom on a few different occasions and then again on the 17th of July. When she caught Jack in her bedroom, he was putting a SD card in his pocket."
After Knight left the room, the tenant, "started looking around the area of the bedroom where she had seen Jack and started looking at the wall clock. On the wall clock she noticed it had a small hole in the face of the clock with a lens."
After searching Knight's house, deputies seized two cameras in wall clocks, a smoke detector camera, 3 computers, a cell phone, digital camera, various thumb drives and SD cards, and other computer components.
On one of those devices, detectives say they made a disturbing discovery. According to a warrant for his arrest, deputies find "probable cause" to believe Knight had images of sexual acts involving children as young as 3-years-old.
"It's always important to stop them before they take it to that next level, you know and act on if your videotaping someone or looking at certain type of images at some point we are just afraid that you might start acting on those," explained Lieutenant Tammi Howell, Chief Investigator, Rockingham County Sheriff's Office.
Knight's computers have been sent to the state lab for further analysis. Chief Investigator Tammi Howell says this case is far from over and says Knight might face more charges.
Knight is in the Rockingham County Jail under a $250,000 bond for the sexual exploitation charges.
