Photos of nude girl investigated

AUSTINTOWN — Police are investigating who took photos of a nude 7-year-old girl that were found on a cell phone.

A Youngstown man told police his wife discovered the photos, which were provocative in nature, Thursday on an inactivated phone his daughter plays with.

The photos were taken in August, police said. The phone had been in the bottom of the girl’s toy box.

The photos are of a township girl his daughter knows, the man told police. His daughter had lent the phone to a friend, he added.

The friend had taken the phone over to the victim’s house sometime in August and had left it there for several days, the friend’s mother told police.

Police searched the home where the victim lives with her father but found nothing pertaining to the pictures, a police report says.

The girl was staying with her mother, and police did not have to call Children Services to take her, the report says. The mother agreed to keep the girl and her brother pending further investigation, the report says.