Taunton man who recorded young family member in shower, sentenced to prison

A 49-year-old Taunton man who secretly recorded a young family member in the shower and was found in possession of dozens of images of child pornography was sentenced to serve three to five years in state prison last week, Bristol County District Attorney Thomas M. Quinn IIII announced.

According to Gregg Miliote of the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office, Darin McNeil pleaded guilty to indictments charging him with two counts of possessing child pornography and one count of posing or exhibiting a child in the nude.

On May 18, 2018, the Foxboro Police Department in Norfolk County received a report from workers at The Learning Experience, a daycare center in Foxboro. An employee there found a device appearing to be an ink pen containing a video and audio recorder that was hidden in an employee bathroom. Through their investigation, officers learned that the recorder contained a video of the defendant allegedly placing it in the bathroom to secretly videotape women in the bathroom. Officers also learned that the defendant worked at the daycare center that day as an electrical subcontractor. The defendant is currently being prosecuted in Norfolk County in regards to this incident.

The recording devices were examined on May 23, 2018 pursuant to a search warrant. On one of the recorders, investigators found a video from a residential bathroom showing a naked, young girl emerging from the shower.

On May 24, 2018, Detective Randy Demello and Detective Lynne Pina of the Taunton Police Department obtained and executed a search warrant for defendant’s home in East Taunton. There they found several empty boxes for spy pen camera, assorted computer equipment, and several thumb drives. On two thumb drives, police found a total of 63 pornographic images of nude children. They also found a fire pit in the defendant’s back yard, where assorted computer components were found burned. Investigators could not retrieve data from the burned components.

Through their investigation, detectives were able to identify the victim who was recorded exiting the shower.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Jose Vazquez and the state prison sentence was imposed by Judge Raffi Yessayan. Based on the heinous, predatory nature of the defendant’s conduct, Assistant District Attorney Vazquez argued for a harsher five to seven year state prison term.

Upon his release from prison, the defendant will be placed on supervised probation with GPS monitoring for three years. The conditions of probation include registering as a sex offender, attending sex offender treatment upon his release, staying away and having no contact with the victim, not living with or having any unsupervised contact with any children under the age of 16, not to volunteer or work any job that involves contact with anyone under 16, not to enter any daycare centers, and to have GPS monitoring with a curfew from 7 pm to 7 am.

“The defendant engaged in perverted and very disturbing behavior which is difficult to comprehend. I would like to commend the Taunton police department for their efforts in this case which resulted in a state prison sentence that was well deserved,” District Attorney Quinn said.