The workplace of the U.S. Legal professional for the District of Massachusetts mentioned in a information launch that Estes Carter Thompson III, 36, was taken into custody in Lynchburg, Va., and can make an preliminary courtroom look within the Western District of Virginia. Thompson, a Charlotte resident, will later seem in a federal courtroom in Boston, the place the household of the woman aboard the September flight reported him to police.
Thompson faces one rely of tried sexual exploitation of kids and one rely of possession of kid pornography depicting a prepubescent minor. He might obtain 15 to 30 years in jail for the primary cost and 5 to twenty years for the second. He additionally faces the potential for a lifetime of supervision, a wonderful of $250,000 and restitution to the victims.
“What Mr. Thompson is accused of doing is disgraceful, and we consider, calculated, on condition that this alleged conduct occurred on at the very least 5 flights,” Jodi Cohen, particular agent answerable for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Division, mentioned within the launch. “This case ought to make it crystal clear that the FBI takes crimes aboard plane and the sexual exploitation of kids severely. In case you’ve been the sufferer of against the law aboard an plane or have witnessed one happen, we ask you to report it to each your flight crew and the FBI.”
The North Carolina household who reported Thompson in Boston filed a lawsuit towards American Airways on Dec. 1 alleging the corporate “ought to have recognized the flight attendant was a hazard” and that different crew members did not confiscate his telephone midflight, permitting him time to destroy proof.
“We take these allegations very severely,” American Airways mentioned in an announcement Friday. “They don’t mirror our airline or our core mission of caring for individuals. We’ve been absolutely cooperating with legislation enforcement in its investigation, as there’s nothing extra essential than the protection and safety of our clients and staff.”
American mentioned Thompson was “instantly withheld from service following the September 2023 incident and hasn’t labored since.”
A 14-year-old woman recognized in courtroom filings as Minor A was touring together with her household on a Sept. 2 flight from Charlotte to Boston. In keeping with an FBI affidavit, the woman was ready for a rest room when Thompson approached her and advised her she might use the one in firstclass. Thompson advised her he needed to wash his fingers earlier than she entered and spent what appeared to the woman to be an unusually very long time inside. Thompson additionally warned the woman the bathroom seat was damaged, the doc says.
In keeping with the FBI affidavit, when the woman entered, she noticed crimson stickers on the underside of the bathroom lid labeled “INOPERABLE CATERING EQUIPMENT.” After she used the bathroom, the doc says, she seen the stickers had been concealing an iPhone with a light-weight turned on. She took {a photograph} of the telephone and the stickers and instantly reported what occurred to her mom. By the point her mom obtained as much as examine the bathroom, the stickers and the telephone had been reportedly gone.
The woman’s father confronted Thompson and two different flight attendants concerning the incident, the affidavit says. The opposite flight attendants tried to assist the daddy evaluation the contents of Thompson’s telephone to de-escalate the state of affairs earlier than Thompson took it again. The flight attendants reported the incident to the captain and notified legislation enforcement on the bottom. Thompson had time to lock himself within the bathroom for 3 to 5 minutes, the affidavit says.
When Massachusetts state troopers interviewed Thompson in Boston, he gave them consent to go looking his iPhone. They discovered no file of calls, texts, photographs or movies on the telephone. Thompson was allowed to depart, however authorities retained his telephone and his suitcase.
A search of the suitcase discovered 11 of the identical crimson stickers that Minor A photographed on the bathroom. A forensic search of Thompson’s telephone by the FBI later discovered it had been reset to manufacturing unit settings on the day of the flight.
Upon reviewing Thompson’s iCloud account, the FBI was not in a position to find video of Minor A within the bathroom. The FBI discovered 4 different movies within the account that had been filmed between January and August final yr on an iPhone 12, the identical mannequin as Thompson’s telephone.
The movies contained metadata displaying they had been created at instances when Thompson was engaged on American Airways flights. The 4 minor victims in these recordings had been 7, 9, 11 and 14. The kids had been recognized to the FBI by their dad and mom.
To determine “different proof of sexual curiosity in youngsters,” the FBI affidavit says Thompson’s iCloud account additionally contained 50 pictures of a 9-year-old unaccompanied minor from one other flight. There have been additionally a whole bunch of pictures of kid pornography that appeared to have been created by a synthetic intelligence web site.
