Manowar guitarist faces child porn charges in Charlotte, police say

Karl Logan of Charlotte, the guitarist for heavy metal band Manowar, faces charges in Mecklenburg County Court related to possessing child pornography, Billboard magazine reported.

On Friday, the New York band tweeted that Logan “will not perform with” the group while he and his attorneys deal with charges against him. The band did not specify the charges.

“The new album and upcoming tour will not be affected,” Manowar tweeted, saying its announcement was through its management company, Magic Circle Entertainment.

Mecklenburg County jail records show Logan, 53, was arrested on six counts of third-degree sexual exploitation of a minor. He was freed on $210,000, according to jail records.

According to N.C. general statute 14-190.17A, the charge involves possessing “material” showing a minor “engaging in sexual activity.”

Arrest warrants say Logan had “several videos which depicted girls between the ages of four and 12-years-old engaged in a variety of sexual acts with unidentified men,” Charlotte station WCCB reported.

Logan’s arrest in August likely became public last week “because of a reporter’s inquiry into the case,” Billboard reported, citing a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police spokesperson.

Manowar says on its website that it was the first metal band “to include sword & sorcery imagery in both their lyrics and on their album covers,” the “only band ever to record with Orson Welles” and “among the first metal bands to record with an orchestra.“

The band says on its website that it’s the “loudest band in the world (a record they have broken on three separate occasions)“ and “the first metal band to record a song in over 18 different languages (and counting).”

This story was originally published October 30, 2018 at 9:01 PM with the headline "Manowar guitarist faces child porn charges in Charlotte, police say."