A former preschool teacher in Abilene has been sentenced to 30 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to producing child pornography.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas, Mark Penfield Eichorn admitted to producing child sexual abuse material while employed at St. John’s Episcopal School in Abilene.
Eichorn paid two boys, ages 12 and 13, to record themselves performing sexual acts on each other.
He contacted one of the child victims and offered to pay him $100 per week to be his “Sugar Daddy.” He later admitted to paying both victims hundreds of dollars in exchange for videos of themselves engaging in sexually explicit acts.
According to court documents, Eichorn continued to work with children despite knowing he struggled with desires to sexually assault children.
He also admitted to seeking out child sexual abuse material online and trading it across internet platforms.
The case was prosecuted in federal court, where Eichorn received a 30-year sentence without the possibility of parole.
Judge James Wesley Hendrix said when imposing the maximum sentence, “I have to make a lot of difficult decisions. This is not one of them.”
Eichorn does not possess a Texas teacher certificate, but is listed on the Texas Education Agency’s “Do Not Hire Registry” as “under investigation.”
Hundreds of Texas teachers and other school employees have been accused of sex crimes involving children in just the past few years.
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