An ex-middle school teacher in Florida got a massive prison sentence for creating disturbing images of students, and some of himself sexually abusing his family’s pet.
Forty-seven-year-old David McKeown, who taught at a school in Holly Hill, was sentenced to 135 years in prison after being arrested in June, WESH reported Tuesday.
When police received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in June, investigators executed search warrants at the man’s home and the school where he was employed. According to Breitbart News, he had been working at United Brethren in Christ (UBIC) Academy, a school affiliated with the UBIC church.
When the search warrants were executed, authorities located several electronic devices and also found images of sexual abuse and sexual abuse activities with animals from his social media accounts, per the WESH article:
When reviewing McKeown’s social media account, Detective Corporal Palm discovered several messages in which he was communicating with other users, disseminating students’ personal information, sending their photographs and utilizing artificial intelligence to generate child sexual abuse images.
Additionally, evidence revealed he manufactured animal pornography by photographing himself committing acts of sexual abuse against the family pet.
According to CBS News, police also received a tip about the Florida teacher from the social platform known as Discord. In 2023, Discord’s CEO, Jason Citron, admitted the platform was filled with child exploitation and grooming, Breitbart News reported at the time.
In a recent statement on the case, Attorney General James Uthmeier said, “The abuse and trauma this predator inflicted is sick, and he deserves every moment of this sentence. We will always seek the longest sentence possible for anyone who harms innocent children or defenseless animals.”
McKeown was convicted on charges of aggravated possession of child sexual abuse images, possession of child sexual abuse images, and sexual conduct with an animal, while also being designated a sex offender. In addition, he is prohibited from owning pets if he is released from prison.
According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) website, “Artificial intelligence (AI) provides offenders the ability to produce exponentially more digital images and videos depicting child sexual abuse. This presents law enforcement with new and significantly challenging aspects of child sexual exploitation investigations. However, AI also presents tremendous potential to help tackle this global threat by enhancing law enforcement’s capability to identify victims and offenders efficiently and accurately.”
AI allows predators to take images of children and make it appear as if they are naked or engaging in sexual acts, and they can also use AI to teach other offenders how to groom children for possible nefarious activities.
DHS emphasized that every form of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) is illegal and “deeply harmful to victims and society.”
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