Record Of Teenage Girls In Aircraft Toilets, This Pramugara Sentenced To 18.5 Years In Prison

Illustration. (Unsplash/Tingey Injury Law Firm)

JAKARTA - A steward accused of attaching his cell phone to the toilet cap of the plane to secretly record young girls was sentenced to less than 20 years in prison last week.

Former American Airlines steward Estes Carter Thompson III was sentenced to 18.5 years in prison and five years in parole.

US District Court Judge Boston Julia Kobick, called his behavior "terrible" and said "the victim's children's possession has been lost" due to his actions.

Thompson was arrested and charged in January 2024 in Lynchburg, Virginia, after authorities said a 14-year-old girl on his plane found a secret recording device on the toilet, as reported by CNN from AP 1 August.

He was charged last year on charges of attempted sexual exploitation of children and one charge of possession of images of child sexual abuse depicting minors.

He then apologized in court on Wednesday last week, describing his actions as "goal, lecherous and false."

Police suspect Thompson, who is from Charlotte, North Carolina, has footage of four other girls aged between 7 and 14 using airplane toilets over a 9-month period.

In a memorandum of the verdict filed in court, US Government prosecutors said Thompson "ramps the innocence and beliefs of five young girls about the good of the world and the people they will meet in it, instead of leaving them with fear, distrust, unsafe feelings, and sadness."

Thompson, who will serve his sentence at the FMC Butner in North Carolina, intends to undergo special treatment for perpetrators of sexual crimes, his lawyer said.