The trial of a Bowling Green man accused of receiving child pornography began Tuesday in U.S. District Court.

Barry Craig Flora, 46, of Cabell Drive is accused of viewing and downloading images of child pornography on his home computer. Flora is a former emergency medical technician for The Medical Center.

The Bowling Green Police Department began to investigate Flora in 2004 after a complaint about him inappropriately touching a 10-year-old girl. Although he isn't facing charges on that alleged contact, it is being discussed during the trial.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jo E. Lawless began opening statements by stating the alleged contact occurred around October 2004.

“The girl went to a trusted family friend who then told her stepmother, who brought the case to the Bowling Green Police Department,” Lawless said.

During the investigation, Flora's computer was seized, and records obtained from it show repeated visits to the same sexually explicit and sexually suggestive Web sites, she said.

Lawless told the jury they would see an interview with Flora in which he changed his story several times.

Flora's attorney, Wesley Milliken, said inconsistencies in Flora's statement came from detectives telling him they had different evidence and making him explain how those things could have happened.

Law enforcement can find items that have been viewed or downloaded using techniques that explore a computer's history, Lawless said.

Forensic investigators were able to find a significant amount of information about child pornography Web sites, Lawless said. There were also downloaded images of child porn in the computer's memory.

Some 400 pages of records showed repeated access to Web sites that were sexually explicit and suggestive, she said.

There are innocent reasons those images could have been on the computer, Milliken said.

Flora began going to adult sites because he was told his former wife's ex-husband had posted nude pictures of her, Milliken said, and these sites made the computer susceptible to child pornography images through viruses.

According to court documents, Milliken intends to show Flora was out of town at times when the child pornography was downloaded.

A man who worked on Flora's family computer before the charges will testify about all the problems with viruses and other issues, Milliken said.

“These allegations have ruined him professionally and financially,” Milliken said. “His wife has divorced him; he's only seen her a couple of times since the investigation to finalize the divorce.”

Evidence will provide reasonable doubt, he said.

“Listen to all the evidence carefully,” Milliken said. “These are terrible charges. They are very serious.”

Although he isn't being tried for touching the young girl, Flora denies those accusations as well, Milliken said.

The girl, now 12, also testified Tuesday, but the court was emptied to protect her identity on the orders of federal Judge Joseph H. McKinley Jr.

Flora was indicted Feb. 8 and posted a $25,000 unsecured bond Feb. 10. The case against him in Warren Circuit Court for allegedly touching the child was dismissed Feb. 10 so the case could be pursued in federal court, according to court documents.

If convicted, he faces a sentence of not less than five years and not more than 20 years on both counts, a fine of up to $250,000 issued and supervised release for life.