A perverted American Airways flight attendant who confessed to taping his cellphone to the airplane rest room’s lid to movie ladies as younger as seven years outdated has been sentenced to 18 1/2 years in jail.
Estes Carter Thompson III pleaded responsible earlier this 12 months to recording 5 underage ladies over a nine-month interval — in addition to amassing a trove of AI-generated baby pornography.
The 37-year-old now-fired flight attendant apologized at his sentencing Wednesday, conceding that his wicked actions have been “egocentric, perverse and unsuitable.”
Boston U.S. District Courtroom Choose Julia Kobick referred to as Thompson’s conduct “appalling” and stated the filmed children’ “innocence has been misplaced” due to it.
Federal prosecutors famous that Thompson had been “recording movies of the youngsters’s our bodies in one among their most non-public moments, after which storing, enhancing, and revisiting these movies, all for his personal sexual gratification,” based on a sentencing memorandum obtained by Boston.com.
Thompson “robbed 5 younger ladies of their innocence and perception within the goodness of the world and the folks they’d encounter in it, as a substitute leaving them with concern, distrust, insecurity, and unhappiness,” prosecutors stated.
The North Carolina native was arrested 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 clean his arms, mentioning that the bathroom seat was not working, prosecutors informed the US District Courtroom in Boston.
The woman then discovered an iPhone crudely hid beneath pink upkeep stickers that stated “seat damaged” on the underside of the bathroom seat.
The teenager snapped pictures of the hidden digicam, returned to her seat, and confirmed them to her dad and mom.
The women’ father confronted Thompson, who hid himself within the lavatory for the rest of the flight and deleted all of his cellphone’s information.
Investigators found extra pink stickers in his suitcase, and a search of his iCloud account revealed extra recordings of 4 different underage ladies — ages 7, 9, 11 and 14 — in addition to pictures of an unaccompanied 9-year-old asleep in her seat, and a hoard of sexual AI-generated photos involving kids.
He pleaded responsible in March to expenses of tried sexual exploitation of kids and possession of kid pornography depicting a prepubescent minor.
Thompson will serve his sentence at FMC Butner in North Carolina and intends to bear remedy for intercourse offenders.
Along with the 18-plus years behind bars, he should additionally serve 5 years of supervised launch.
Thompson was instantly fired by American Airways after the incident, however the firm continues to be dealing with a civil lawsuit from one of many victims.
Paul Llewellyn, whose Texas-based regulation agency Lewis & Llewellyn is representing the kid’s household, informed Boston.com it’s “deeply troubling” Thompson was capable of exploit his place “in such a calculated and invasive method.”
“American Airways owes these households — and the general public — solutions and significant reforms to make sure this will by no means occur once more,” he stated.
With Publish Wires
