Deonte Carraway via PG County Police
A former teaching assistant has been sentenced to 75 years in federal prison after admitting to sexually abusing children and recording them performing sex acts at a Maryland elementary school and other locations in Glenarden, according to multiple news reports.
Deonte Carraway, a 23-year-old from Glenarden, pleaded guilty in January to 15 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor to produce child pornography.
He told authorities that he filmed children performing sex acts on one another as well as himself performing acts with him, according to the plea agreement, obtained by The Washington Post. He also admitted to creating a club and told children that in order to join, they would have to send photos of themselves.
While the 75-year sentence from the U.S. District Court in Greenbelt on Monday involves 12 children ages 9 to 13, police say Carraway abused and recorded at least 23 children, including some with special needs.
He’s currently facing charges in Prince George’s County Circuit Court, where a grand jury indicted him on 270 counts of sex abuse, among other charges. There are also at least nine civil and one class-action lawsuit against him filed by families, the school system, and the city of Glenarden.
Some of the instances took place at Judge Sylvania W. Woods Elementary School, where Carraway was a teaching assistant and choir director. Officials say that the abuse also happened inside private homes, at a recreation center, and other places in the Glenarden area.
Police say that Carraway gave children cellphones so they could record themselves when he wasn’t present and he communicated with them via an app, according to The Post.
A child’s uncle found inappropriate photos and told authorities. Carraway was arrested in February 2016.
Prince George’s County Public Schools CEO Dr. Kevin Maxwell announced that the school system’s twenty-thousand employees would go through mandatory “retraining,” among other changes after outraged parents demanded answers as the case unfolded.
