Former Youngsters’s Museum Director Sentenced for Little one Pornography

Robert Eckert, former govt director of the Lutz Youngsters’s Museum in Manchester, Connecticut, has been sentenced to 5 and a half years in jail for distributing little one pornography, in response to a January 3 statement from the US Legal professional’s Workplace.

In June 2020, authorities uncovered 1,837 photographs and 73 movies of sexually specific content material involving prepubescent minors and younger youngsters on Eckert’s cellphone, 32 of which depicted little one victims recognized by legislation enforcement. Eckert, 57, was positioned on administrative depart and ultimately fired from the museum, and in April 2021, he was arrested. He plead responsible in September 2022 and can start his federal jail sentence on February 15.

Eckert obtained and distributed little one pornography on numerous Web platforms utilizing numerous fictitious accounts, and accessed the websites each at house and whereas at work.

“It’s axiomatic that sharing photographs depicting little one sexual abuse is antithetical to the mission of a kids’s museum,” wrote the prosecutors of their sentencing memo, which was reviewed by Hyperallergic. “However, to make it even worse, Eckert traded little one pornography from his workplace within the Lutz.”

In an announcement shared with Hyperallergic, a Lutz Youngsters’s Museum spokesperson stated there isn’t a proof that any museum customer, volunteer, or workers member was impacted by Eckert’s actions.

“From the second the allegations regarding Robert Eckert got here to gentle, the Lutz Youngsters’s Museum has taken any and all steps essential to guard the security and well-being of its patrons, volunteers and workers,” the spokesperson stated, including that the museum will proceed to cooperate with all authorized investigations. The consultant didn’t verify the dates of Eckert’s tenure on the establishment.

Eckert’s lawyer, Trent LaLima, stated in a statement that Eckert has been receiving psychological well being therapy and attending intercourse offender group remedy classes since his arrest. LaLima added that Eckert’s spouse of 16 years has divorced him and he now not has a relationship together with his ex-wife’s kids nor with one in all his organic kids. LaLima has not but responded to Hyperallergic’s quick request for remark.

The sentencing memo states that Eckert’s actions weren’t “a single blip in a life that was in any other case well-lived” however fairly “at the least a yr of buying and selling little one pornography.” US Legal professional for the District of Connecticut Vanessa Roberts Avery emphasised the continued hurt to little one pornography victims: “Victims dwell with persistent concern over who has seen photographs of their sexual abuse and undergo by understanding that the photographs depicting the worst moments of their lives are getting used for pleasure and sexual gratification.”