Former Seattle mayor’s son arrested for child porn possession

Jack Francis McGinn, 29, was arrested Friday morning in Seattle for possession of child pornography. He was charged in King County Superior Court on Tuesday with dealing and possessing child pornography, or, as the Prosecutor’s Office wrote, “peddling in the misery of sexually abused children to satiate deviant interests.”

McGinn is the son of Mike McGinn, Seattle’s mayor from 2010 to 2013. The younger McGinn lived at his parents’ home at the time of the arrest; his parents have since moved to the East Coast, according to court records.

At McGinn’s first appearance on Saturday afternoon, a King County Superior Court judge lowered bail to $70,000, down from $100,000. His mother attended the hearing.

In December, Google reported to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children that McGinn had downloaded 700 files “containing depictions of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct.”

The videos include children as young as 4 years old being sexually abused and raped, although McGinn said he would close videos immediately if it was a very young child. According to charging documents, he said that he viewed videos of young teen girls because he did not talk to many girls in high school and has a fantasy of being back in high school.

Police also found "child-size sex dolls in McGinn's bedroom that appeared to have been used."

The case was sent to the Seattle Police Department in January. A Seattle Police officer interviewed McGinn, who reportedly admitted to downloading the files onto his desktop.

“McGinn stated he knew it was wrong and would feel gross after masturbating to the child sex abuse material,” the officer wrote. “According to McGinn, he has a cocaine addiction and goes on weekend benders which is when he typically views the child sex abuse material on his desktop. McGinn advised he has never been hands on with a child.”

McGinn told the detective that he didn’t know why he hadn’t deleted the files after viewing them. He said he learned about the child porn through targeted ads for Silk Road, which used keywords like "young," and "porn."

As of Monday morning, McGinn was no longer listed on the roster for the King County jail.

Usage of child pornography is widespread, according to a presentation by Laura Harmon, senior deputy prosecuting attorney for King County.

The state receives 100 tips about child porn use, many of which come from tech giants like Google and Meta. These tips increased by 250% between 2019 and 2023.