Former Middle School Teacher Sentenced to 7 Years for Possessing Child Pornography

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Matthew T. Schelp on Monday sentenced a former St. Louis County, Missouri middle school teacher to seven years in prison for possessing hundreds of images and videos containing child sexual abuse material.

Scott R. Ellis, 39, was also ordered to pay $90,500 in restitution to 12 victims that have been identified in the child sexual abuse material that he collected. After his release from prison, he will be on supervised release for life.

Ellis possessed 72 images containing child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on his cell phone and about 700 videos and more than 900 images in his Mega cloud storage account. CSAM in his Google account triggered two cyber tipline reports to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and the subsequent investigation.

Ellis, 38, pleaded guilty in February to one felony count of possession of child pornography. He was a teacher at Rogers Middle School in the Affton School District at the time of his crimes and formerly worked at Hancock Place School District in St. Louis County.

The FBI and the St. Louis County Police Department Bureau of Special Investigations investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jillian Anderson prosecuted the case. 

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Department of Justice Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.