Patricia
and Matthew Ayers—who pled guilty to crimes against a child in their
custody—were recently sentenced to an astonishing 2,340 years collectively
behind bars (1,590 for her, 750 for him), FBI reports.
The
federal judge who handed down those sentences told the defendants, “I have been
on the bench since 1998 and this is the worst case I have personally dealt
with. ... You robbed this child of her childhood and her soul, and a maximum
sentence is the only sentence appropriate.”
The case
began in Alabama in December 2012, when a friend of the Ayers contacted local
authorities after seeing digital pornographic pictures of a child that were
provided to him by Patricia Ayers. The Lauderdale County Sheriff’s Office
served a search warrant at the Ayers’ residence in Florence and seized computers,
cell phone, cameras, and electronic storage media devices. Patricia Ayers—who
admitted taking the images of the child, initially claiming they were taken for
the purposes of documenting a rash—was arrested.
In early
January 2013, Lauderdale authorities requested the Bureau’s assistance, and our
Florence Resident Agency (out of the FBI Birmingham Field Office) opened a
federal child pornography investigation.
Another
search warrant was served at the Ayers’ residence to locate and document items
seen in the child pornography images suspected of being produced in the home. A
previous address that the Ayers occupied was also searched—with the consent of
the current homeowners—and law enforcement identified wallpaper in that house
as the same wallpaper visible in some of the images.
During
the course of the investigation, an agent from our Dallas Field Office who was
working another child pornography matter was able to connect his case—and his
subject—to Patricia Ayers through an automated search of FBI records. Among
other links, Patricia Ayers had e-mailed the subject of the Dallas case images
of child pornography, including pictures of the child in the Ayers’ custody.
The Ayers were indicted on federal charges in May 2014.
Assisting
Bureau agents on the Ayers case was an FBI Computer Analysis and Response Team
expert who reviewed all of the digital evidence seized during the search
warrants, as well as FBI analysts who carefully scrutinized every image for
clues as to when and where it was taken, what was being shown, and who was
pictured.
Also
involved were forensic child interviewers Victim Assistance at FBI
Headquarters, who are specially trained to get young crime victims and
witnesses to talk about what they experienced while not traumatizing them any
further. And FBI Birmingham’s local victim assistance specialist worked with
the victim from the beginning of the case through sentencing and beyond,
offering much-needed support, some counselling, and additional community
resource referrals.
The victim—who is believed to have been around 6 years old
when the abuse started—is now in the care of family members.
Veer funny. How many years do they want to use on earth.
ReplyDeleteWe need such type of judgement in Nigeria. Some guys are worse than the couple
ReplyDeleteOmo, this one na serious thing ooooo. The judge kala gan. I sure say if them die for jail self, dem no go release dem bones to the public.
ReplyDelete