An American Airways flight attendant pleaded responsible Thursday to utilizing a hidden iPhone to report underage women in airplane toilets and accumulating an enormous trove of kid pornography.
Estes Carter Thompson III, 37, faces as much as 20 years in jail for little one exploitation after he was caught attempting to secretly movie a 14-year-old passenger with an iPhone taped to a rest room seat, The Boston Globe reported.
Investigators later discovered secret toilet movies of women aged 7, 9, 11, and 14 in Thompson’s iCloud account taken on totally different flights in 2023 — plus a hoard of kiddie porn generated utilizing AI.
Thompson was busted in September 2023 on a Boston-bound flight after he escorted a 14-year-old passenger to the bathroom, however requested to enter first to scrub his arms, mentioning that the bathroom seat was “damaged,” prosecutors instructed the US District Court docket in Boston.
The lady then discovered an iPhone haphazardly hid below purple upkeep stickers on the underside of the bathroom seat. She took pictures of the hidden digicam, returned to her seat, and confirmed them to her mother and father.
When the lady’s father confronted Thompson, he locked himself within the toilet and restored his telephone to manufacturing facility settings, prosecutors stated.
Investigators later discovered extra purple stickers in his suitcase, and a search of his iCloud account revealed extra recordings of 4 different underage women, pictures of an unaccompanied 9-year-old asleep in her seat, and a trove of a whole bunch of sexually specific, AI-generated photos involving kids, prosecutors instructed The Globe.
“All minor victims concerned on this matter have been recognized and their households have been contacted by legislation enforcement,” prosecutors instructed the courtroom.
Thompson, who’s from Charlotte, NC, pleaded responsible to fees of tried sexual exploitation of youngsters and possession of kid pornography depicting a prepubescent minor.
These crimes carry most sentences of 30 and 20 years, respectively, though with the plea deal, prosecutors will doubtless search a sentence of 15-20 years behind bars.
“I anticipate the protection will search a 15-year sentence,” Thompson’s federal public defender, Scott Lauer, instructed the Globe in a press release.
Along with the jail time, Thompson might be pressured to pay $250,000 in damages.
The households of two victims have filed fits in opposition to American Airways for permitting their staff to prey on the women.
The household of the lady who caught Thompson within the act accused the airline of negligence for not confiscating the worker’s telephone after the lady’s father notified airline workers, permitting him to destroy proof.
The household of a 9-year-old sufferer who Thompson secretly recorded in January, 2023, additionally sued American Airways, however the airline initially tried guilty the lady for utilizing a rest room “she knew or ought to have recognized contained a visual and illuminated recording machine.”
American Airways later apologized for the response and fired the authorized staff behind it.
“We don’t consider this little one is at fault and we take the allegations involving a former staff member very critically,” the airline instructed The Submit final Might.
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