Dunedin chef accused of making child porn of 3-year-old

TAMPA — A Pinellas County chef faces federal child pornography charges after admitting to an FBI agent that he made sexually explicit videos of a 3-year-old girl he was babysitting, authorities said.

The criminal complaint against Steven Edward Speer, 27, contains excerpts from online chat messages, purportedly sent under Speer's user names, that graphically describe "training" a 3-year-old to perform a sex act.

Speer was arrested late Tuesday after the FBI searched his Clearwater residence.

FBI Special Agent William B. Jones stated in an affidavit that Speer admitted to the production, transportation, receipt and possession of child pornography and to having stored the images on two cellphones and a laptop computer.

He shared his own productions on the Internet so that he could get access to other people's porn, the affidavit states.

"He admitted that these images and other child pornography images he had downloaded and possessed were sexually gratifying to him," the agent wrote.

Speer's Facebook page states that he attended Largo High School, studied culinary arts at the Pinellas Technical Educational Centers, and worked at the Dunedin Golf Club and Fish Tail Willy's before starting as a chef at Kelly's Chic-a-Boom Room in Dunedin this year.

"We don't support or condone any type of illegal behavior," Kelly's manager Jean Etjeke said Wednesday. "It's not what we want to represent as an establishment."

Speer was held in the Pinellas County Jail, pending a bond hearing Friday before Magistrate Judge Anthony E. Porcelli in U.S. District Court in Tampa.

Patty Ryan can be reached at pryan@tampabay.com or (813) 226-3382.