Arrestee: Video Of Naked Girl Was Accident

GREENSBURG, Ind. -- A Greensburg man charged with having video of a naked 12-year-old female relative admits to secretly recording the footage but says he never intended to capture her in the nude.

Danny Shelton, who recently was arrested and charged with child exploitation, said Monday he had hidden a camera in the girl's bedroom at his home to determine whether she was jumping on and damaging a bed.

"What I caught was something different. ... So I had videos on (my computer) of her undressing and then jumping into bed nude," Shelton, 55, told 6News' Derrik Thomas in an interview in jail.

Shelton (pictured) said he thought he had erased the video. But he learned otherwise when he took his computer to a Staples store to fix a malfunction, police said.

"Fortunately, the technician that was servicing the person's computer was alerted to some improper material on the hard drive and alerted us," Greensburg Police Chief Brian T. Heaton said.

Officers found firearms in his home during his arrest, police said. Shelton, because he was convicted in 1979 in Ohio of attempted murder and aggravated robbery, is not allowed to possess firearms in Indiana. So, besides child exploitation, he was charged with firearms possession by a serious violent felon.

Shelton said he hid the camera in the girl's room because the bed had been broken, and he thought that if he caught her jumping on it, that would back his suspicion about how it had been damaged.

Shelton said he made a mistake.

"I never intended to film her that way. It just happened," he said.

Shelton was being held Monday with bond set at $5,000. A judge said that if Shelton posts bond, he cannot return to his home, because the girl lives there.