Robert M. Carey, a former National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientist, was sentenced to 15 years in prison Wednesday for producing and possessing more than one million online child pornography images.
Among the images found in Carey’s collection were photographs of sexual acts between Carey, 52, and a minor female member of his family.
Some of the pictures were taken at Carey’s NOAA office.
Carey was also ordered to serve three years of supervised release after his prison term and ordered to pay $50,000 in restitution to the family of the minor female victim.
“This case demonstrates both the scope and the severity of the harm caused by online child pornography,” Maryland U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein said in a statement.
“The defendant not only downloaded more than one million pictures of abused children, he also sexually abused a child and took his own pictures.”
According to the Department of Justice, Carey used government computers at his office and home to access child pornography images over a 10-year period.
In August of last year, federal law enforcement officials searched Carey’s NOAA office and his residence and discovered images of prepubescent girls and young female teenagers in erotic or sexually graphic poses.
Following his indictment in December of 2005, Carey fled the country. He was featured a month later on the television show America’s Most Wanted and several days later Carey surrounded to U.S. officials in Rome.
He pleaded guilty to child pornography charges on May 19.
“Every photograph of child pornography is evidence of a crime,” Rosenstein said.
Carey’s sentencing marks the third major conviction this year in Maryland for online child pornography.
In January, James A. Reigle, Jr., 46, was sentenced to life in prison.
An associate Reigle met in a chat room, Thomas Evered, was hit with a 10-year prison term for producing and distributing child pornography.
