Maine Kindergarten Teacher Sentenced to 16 Years in Prison for Child Pornography
A former kindergarten teacher in Maine who pleaded guilty to taking photos of his students will spend the next 16 years in federal prison, the U.S. District Court in Bangor decided Wednesday.
Rob Mocarsky, 42, was arrested in January for possessing pornographic photos of four of his students, who were 5 and 6 years old, reported The Morning Sentinel, a local newspaper. Police have reportedly found 150 to 300 pornographic photos on his computer, which included images of four girls posed in different costumes and with their genitals exposed.
Mocarsky taught in Jackman, a town in Maine. Previously he taught at an elementary school in New Hampshire where he was also reportedly accused of photographing students changing out of their clothes in the late 1990s, but he was never charged.
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Judge John Woodcock Jr., who is presiding over the case, stated: "You chose to teach kindergarten where you knew your students would be particularly naive, trusting, eager to please and susceptible to suggestion. You violated the most basic premise of a teacher, which like a physician is, 'Do no harm.' "
Sentencing in Mocarsky’s case was complicated because of the defendant’s clean record, the judge reportedly said.
The accused apologized in the court.
"I failed all of them," he reportedly said, referring to his family and residents of the town. "I don't just regret what I did, I truly hate who I was inside."
Mocarsky's pastor and counselors stated in court that the accused would be unlikely to re-offend and that he was horrified and mystified by his own actions.
During the case, a mother of one of the victims said that her daughter will no longer pose for school portraits and is afraid to have her photo taken by someone she does not know, The Morning Sentinel reported.
