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Avonmore man pleads to secret taping of child sex

PITTSBURGH — A western Pennsylvania man faces a prison sentence of at least 15 years after pleading guilty to secretly video recording his sexual assault of an 8-year-old girl in 2009.

Fifty-four-year-old Timothy Eugene Shearer, of Avonmore, entered the guilty plea Thursday before a federal judge in Pittsburgh who will sentence Shearer on Aug. 7.

Shearer faces 17 charges in state court, including child rape and indecent exposure, involving the same girl and a 4-year-old boy.

Federal prosecutors say Shearer began molesting the girl when she was 5 or 6 but had denied having sex with the girl when police seized a laptop computer, cameras and other equipment from his home in September.

Federal authorities filed the child pornography charge after Shearer's relatives found a tape labeled "Wildlife 3" that contained the assault on the girl.