Police consider Martin Finley Jr. a threat to young teenage girls.
WALES – A Lewiston man convicted of taking sexually explicit photographs of young girls six years ago at a Lisbon Street motel has moved to Wales.
Investigators from the Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Office say Martin Finley Jr. is considered a high risk to re-offend.
Sheriff’s officials have been alerting townspeople as well as school officials that the 42-year-old convicted pedophile has moved to 195 Pond Road.
Finley gained notoriety in 1997 after he was accused of taking lewd pictures of local girls between the ages of 12 and 17. The photographs, depicting girls in sexually explicit poses, were taken at the Chalet Motel and other locations, investigators said.
At the time, Finley was manager of the 1243 Lisbon St. motel that was owned by his wife.
Finley was also charged with engaging in sexual acts with the young girls, although that charge was later dropped as part of a plea arrangement.
In April 1997, Lewiston police were tipped off about the case after Finley dropped off a roll of film for developing at a Lisbon Street Rite-Aid.
A store employee noticed that some of the photographs being developed pictured young, naked girls in various poses. Police went to the Chalet Motel with a search warrant and seized more than 80 such photographs.
Investigators said a Lewiston woman was paying young girls to go to the Chalet Motel where Finley took pictures of them.
In one photo, Finley is seen involved in a sexual act with a 13-year-old girl, police said. Nancy Dyment, now 30, was photographed on a motel bed with a 12-year-old girl.
Dyment was later convicted of sexual exploitation of minors and unlawful sexual contact. Finley pleaded to multiple counts of sexual exploitation when prosecutors agreed to drop a charge of gross sexual assault.
Dyment was sent to prison for 3 years. Finley was convicted in 1998 and ordered to spend five years behind bars. He was freed from prison last year. After living in Sabattus, Finley has moved to Wales, police said.
When Finley was free on bail pending his sentencing, he was prohibited from owning or using a camera, accessing the Internet, watching pornography, picking up hitchhikers and entering adult bookstores or massage parlors.
Some of those conditions still apply to Finley’s probation, officials said. Sheriff’s investigators are alerting the public because Finley scored high on a sex offender evaluation shortly before he was freed from prison.
“He’s considered a high-risk offender,” said sheriff’s Detective William Gagne.
In addition, Finley has a history of sexual misconduct. In 1993, he was ordered to undergo psychiatric treatment after he was convicted of inappropriately touching a young girl.
At Finley’s sentencing hearing in 1998, Justice Thomas Delahanty II said: “I think he is more than a mere opportunist. We have a person whose sexual orientation is clearly to young girls.”
While keeping their eyes on Finley and alerting neighbors, police are reminding people that it is against the law to harass or threaten the offender.
Anyone with questions or information about Finley is asked to call Gagne at 784-7361 or the Sexual Assault Crisis Center at 795-2211 or 1-800-871-7741.
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