Investigators have found sickening child pornography in the computer of an accused boy-molesting aide at a prominent Upper West Side elementary school — photos so incriminating, a judge hiked his bail today to a quarter million dollars cash.
“This certainly corroborates the complaining witness’s account,” Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Gregory Carro said, referring to the photos and the 8-year-old boy who is the alleged victim of aide Gregory Atkins.
A search of Atkins’ computer files has turned up ten images depicting a child victimized by sexual conduct, Manhattan prosecutors said in bringing the new child porn charges.
Atkins, 56, has remained jailed since his arrest in February, when an 8-year-old boy at the high performing PS 87 alerted school authorities to the abuse.
Atkins, who worked at the school since 2008, had allegedly taken the victim into the boy’s bathroom on four occasions, each time telling the boy to undress so that he could check for “bruises.”
The fourth time, Atkins allegedly asked the boy to perform a sex act, which the boy refused. The case became a lightning rod for Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott, who had to explain to furious parents why Atkins was hired at PS 87 despite having been accused of acting inappropriately with another young student at MS 322 in 2006.
Walcott has said that the 2006 incident had gone under the radar because it resulted in a verbal, not a written, reprimand.
The judge said today that the new photos were so sensitive, he would not allow copies to be made, even for Atkins’ lawyer, who can only view them in the presence of investigators.
“I’m not going to have these photos out in the street, or anywhere other than the District Attorney’s office,” the judge said.
Upon his arrest, Atkins bail had been set by another judge at $250,000 cash. Carro subsequently lowered it to $100,000 cash — which Atkins has been unable to post — only to hike it back to the original amount today based on the new evidence.
Atkins is due back in court on Oct. 17.