A former American Airlines flight attendant has pleaded guilty to secretly recording video of a year-old girl using an airplane bathroom and having recordings of four other girls using the lavatories. Estes Carter Thompson III, 37, of Charlotte, North Carolina, pleaded guilty Thursday to one count of attempted sexual exploitation of children and one count of possession of images of child sexual abuse depicting a prepubescent minor.
Watch NBC 5 free wherever you are. According to investigators, the girl got up to use the main cabin lavatory nearest her seat during a Sept. Thompson told her the first-class lavatory was unoccupied and escorted her there, investigators said. She told investigators that before she entered the bathroom, Thompson told her he needed to wash his hands and that the toilet seat was broken.
After he left, the teen entered the bathroom and saw red stickers on the underside of the toilet seat lid, which was in the open position, officials said, with the words written in black ink and all caps, "inoperative catering equipment," "remove from service," and "seat broken.
The girl used her phone to take a picture of the stickers and concealed iPhone before leaving. Llewellyn said the firm settled the year-old's lawsuit with American Airlines and is set to go to trial in July in the other lawsuit, which was brought on behalf of a 9-year-old girl from Texas.
Prosecutors also allege that their investigation turned up hundreds of images in Thompson's iCloud account of child sexual abuse generated through artificial intelligence, as well as the images of the other four girls captured on earlier flights using the aircraft lavatories.
