BY JIM DOOLEY – A British citizen who filmed himself sexually molesting children
as young as six years of age was sentenced today to 30 years in federal prison.
“I’m deeply sorry and I sincerely apologize for everything I’ve done,” Simon Jasper McCarty told U.S. District Judge J. Michael Seabright in asking for a sentence of 15 years.
McCarty and his mother, Angela McCarty, said that he had been sexually abused during childhood by the husband of a baby-sitter.
McCarty, 39, is the son of rock musician James McCarty, former drummer for groups including The Yardbirds.
Angela McCarty said the abuse occurred after she was divorced.
McCarty was arrested by federal authorities after a cache of videos, photographs and written materials depicting child pornography were discovered in his luggage at Hilo International Airport in August 2008.
After losing a lengthy court challenge to the legality of the seizure of the material, McCarty pleaded guilty earlier this year to a charge of producing child pornography.
Included among the material found on a laptop and other computer equipment were 400 videos, including 60 which showed McCarty having sex with three boys who were 6, 10 and 11 years old when they were first molested, according to court records.
At least two and probably all three of those victims were Nepalese boys McCarty had met in that country while helping to establish an orphanage there.
The youngest victim has never been identified but authorities suspect that he was Nepalese, said the prosecutor, U.S. Justice Department Trial Attorney Mi Yung Park.
Two of the children and their mothers submitted “victim impact statements” to the court.
Park, of the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section of the Justice Department, said she spoke with one victim and his mother and was told that McCarty’s actions “just really shattered their lives on so many levels.”
McCarty told Seabright he has been undergoing sexual offender treatment and has changed his life.
“I was different person. I worked very hard on myself in the last four years,” he said.
“All I can do is change myself,” he continued. “I can’t undo what I’ve done.”
Seabright called McCarty “a likeable person” who “seems very sincere.”
But the judge said McCarty is “a sexual predator who took full advantage of those too young to protect themselves.”
McCarty will be subject to deportation to the United Kingdom when he completes his prison sentence but the judge said he should be the subject of lifetime supervision.
“You continue to be a danger to others,” he said.
As part of his plea agreement with the government, McCarty has agreed to pay $98,000 in restitution to the two victims who have been identified.