PD: Hundreds of pornographic photos with children found in Tempe man's apartment

TEMPE, AZ - A Tempe man was arrested after authorities found hundreds of pornographic photographs of young girls in his apartment when firefighters responded to put out a fire.

According to a Tempe police report, on March 31 a small fire started inside an apartment near Hardy Drive and Baseline Road that was leased to 58-year-old James Ferris. When fire crews checked to see if anyone was inside they came across a three ring binder opened to a photo printed from an Internet website of two girls, approximately 10 years old, in a shower posing for the camera.

The firefighters told a police officer of their discovery and after the officer checked the binder, estimated there were approximately 400 pages of photos of young females from around 4 years old to pre-teen.

Police spoke with Ferris, who was arrested after officers established he was the only occupant of the apartment and he admitted the binder was his.

A search warrant was served at the apartment where officials say detectives found approximately 30 binders similar to the one that was left out in plain view. Police said each binder was full of pornographic photos that had been printed from the computer.

According to police, other items confiscated from the apartment were women's underwear with holes cut out in the front, several jars of Vaseline, four computers, and hundreds of homemade VHS tapes.

Ferris reportedly told investigators he worked as kitchen staff at a Valley resort and would watch little girls running around in their bathing suits in a splash area nearby.

According to the police report, Ferris admitted having an attraction to young girls rather than women and said he was able to resist urges to take any sort of physical action with the girls. He reportedly denied doing anything inappropriate to little girls.

He said he didn’t think there was anything wrong with having the photographs behind closed doors, according to the report.

Ferris faces 10 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor.