A former middle school teacher from St. Louis County, Missouri, has been sentenced to seven years in prison for possessing child pornography. U.S. District Judge Matthew T. Schelp handed down the sentence on Monday to Scott R. Ellis, aged 39.
Ellis was also ordered to pay $90,500 in restitution to 12 victims identified in the child sexual abuse material he collected. Following his release from prison, Ellis will be under supervised release for life.
The investigation revealed that Ellis had 72 images of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on his cell phone and approximately 700 videos and over 900 images stored in his Mega cloud account. His Google account’s CSAM content led to two cyber tipline reports being filed with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
In February, Ellis pleaded guilty to one felony count of possession of child pornography. At the time of his offenses, he was a teacher at Rogers Middle School within the Affton School District and had previously worked at Hancock Place School District in St. Louis County.
The case was investigated by the FBI and the St. Louis County Police Department Bureau of Special Investigations, with Assistant U.S. Attorney Jillian Anderson prosecuting.
This case is part of Project Safe Childhood, an initiative launched by the Department of Justice in May 2006 aimed at combating child sexual exploitation and abuse nationwide. The project involves collaboration between federal, state, and local resources to locate and prosecute individuals exploiting children online while identifying and rescuing victims.
For more information about Project Safe Childhood, visit www.justice.gov/psc.
