Ex-soldier gets 50 years in federal prison in child porn case

[Artaxerxes II]

https://www.expressnews.com/news/articl ... 901018.php

Eric Scott McCants produced sexually explicit videos involving children and shared them in a social networking app, federal officials say.

A retired Army combat medic has been sentenced to 50 years in prison on two counts of sexual exploitation of children, federal officials said Friday.
Eric Scott McCants, 47, of San Antonio, pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual exploitation of children. U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez sentenced him to 25 years in prison on each count. He was also ordered to pay $100,000 in restitution to the two victims.

“This 50-year sentence sends a clear message that the sexual exploitation of children has lasting traumatic effects on vulnerable victims and will not be tolerated in the Western District,” Jaime Esparza, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas, said in a written statement.

McCants produced sexually explicit videos involving children and in July 2021, he shared them in a social networking application that was frequented by a child exploitation group, according to federal court documents.
Court records show he was arrested Aug. 13, 2021, at his North Side home following an FBI investigation in Oklahoma that connected him to a chat group where the members shared video of children being sexually molested. FBI agents took his phone and found other sexually explicit videos, some that dated to October 2018 and portrayed a second child, according to federal officials.

McCants shared a video of himself sexually molesting underage children so that he could join the group, court documents stated.
An affidavit stated that when FBI agents asked him about one of the videos, he admitted that he had molested a 6-year-old girl.
McCants was indicted Sept. 1, 2021, on four counts related to the production, possession and distribution of child pornography, according to a statement Friday from the U.S. Attorney's Office Western District of Texas.

Prior to his retirement in 2020 from the A U.S. Army, McCants ran the employee relations program for the Army's health system, with 74,000 employees worldwide, according to his LinkedIn account. In his role, he supervised a team of 24 advisers.