Laptop in home of kidnap suspect was used to search for child porn

Days before the public learned that the 5-year-old girl abducted from a West Philadelphia school was sexually assaulted, the laptop of kidnap suspect Christina Regusters showed Internet searches for child pornography and covering up DNA from a sexual assault.

That was the testimony of FBI computer expert Michael Moore, who told a Philadelphia jury Monday of searching three laptops seized from the house where Regusters lived, about two blocks from Bryant Elementary School.

Questioned by defense attorney W. Fred Harrison Jr., Moore acknowledged he could not prove who had searched the Internet on Regusters' laptop.

Moore said no password was needed to use the computer and the Internet searches were done under the names "Cristina" and "guest."

Assistant District Attorney Erin O'Brien emphasized the fact that the public was not told the child was sexually assaulted until after Jan. 16, 2014 - days after the Jan. 14 abduction.

Prosecutors said they will present their final witness Tuesday; testimony began Aug. 25.

Harrison did not say who, if anyone, will testify for the defense and Common Pleas Court Judge Jeffrey P. Minehart told the lawyers to prepare to make closing arguments Wednesday.

Moore testified that Regusters' laptop showed web searches for Muslim clothing on Jan. 12; sites for sex with young girls between 2:15 a.m. and 2:25 a.m. on Jan. 14; and searches on Jan. 16 for information about how long saliva and other fluids remain viable for DNA testing and whether bathing destroyed DNA evidence.

The young victim testified that her abductor bathed her after she was assaulted.

Moore testified that the laptop also contained photographs of the victim, taken from television news accounts of the kidnapping.

Laptops used by Regusters' aunt and her boyfriend showed no incriminating web searches, Moore added.

Regusters, 21, has denied involvement in the abduction and sexual assault and Harrison has argued that others living with Regusters in the house in the 6200 block of Walton Avenue could have been the abductor and used Regusters' laptop.

Minehart let prosecutors use the laptop evidence to show a possible motive for Regusters' alleged assault of the girl.

Particles of Regusters' DNA found on a black T-shirt the child wore when she was found in an Upper Darby park before dawn are the only physical link between her and the victim.

The child, in trial testimony and in recorded interviews shortly after her abduction, could not identify her abductor.

Prosecutors allege that Regusters, who worked at a day care center across from the Bryant school where the girl was in an after-school program, is the woman disguised in full Muslim garb seen on a school video taking the girl from the school.

The little girl testified that the woman took her from school to a strange house. There, the girl said, she was blindfolded, kept naked under a bed, and sexually assaulted by a man she never saw or heard.

Prosecutors contend there was only one assailant - Regusters - who concocted the other personas to mislead the girl and investigators.