A Florida babysitter convicted of child sexual abuse received the maximum potential jail sentence, according to federal authorities. Olejuwan Lamar Steele, 30, worked as a community babysitter in Dade City, according to officials. Steele recorded himself sexually abusing a 2-year-old kid in his care in 2022, according to the United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida.
He live-streamed the abuse while babysitting, prosecutors claimed. Steele, of Zephyrhills, pleaded guilty in April to producing child sex abuse material, according to authorities. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison on July 22, according to a news release from prosecutors.
“This babysitter exploited the innocence of a child in his care, betrayed the trust placed in him, and violated the sanctity of childhood itself,” Micah McCombs, the special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations Tampa, stated in a press release.
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Douglas Jordan Stamm, Steele’s court-appointed public defender, refused a McClatchy News request for comment on July 23 due to office policy. “ROUTINELY ACCESSED CHILDREN” According to court filings, Homeland Security agents in Tampa got an emergency alert from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in April 2023 regarding a kid suspected to be in danger in the region.
The group, a non-profit founded by Congress in 1984, suspected Steele of causing harm to the child, according to prosecutors in a sentencing brief. According to the sentencing memorandum, the NCMEC furnished detectives with videos of a man sexually abusing a kid in Dade City, which is roughly 40 miles northeast of Tampa.
Officials recognized the individual in the videos as Steele. Steele was also suspected of sexually abusing another kid, his nonverbal nephew, in 2020 while a suspect in a different NCMEC report, according to prosecutors.
“Steele was taking advantage of his relationship with family and friends to gain access to small children who could not speak for themselves,” prosecutors said in the sentencing letter.
“The evidence in this case indicates that Steele is a dangerous predator who is prepared and ready to exploit vulnerable youngsters….”Steele routinely accessed children, and two videos of his exploitation are now before the court,” the sentencing document states. In a sentencing document filed on Steele’s behalf, Stamm stated that Steele “was drawn into committing the crime” against the youngster in 2022 “at the request of an anonymous individual online.”
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He also stated that Steele “is deeply remorseful.” Prosecutors stated before the sentencing that Steele has “positive relationships” with his family members and “has no history of emotional or mental health concerns.” They concluded that “the gravity of the crimes against children that Steele committed cannot be outweighed by his positive history.”
“This video of child pornography is beyond reprehensible, and it is unfathomable how a human being could choose to inflict this type of damage to a child,” according to the sentencing note issued by the government. Steele’s prison sentence will be “followed by a lifetime of supervised release,” prosecutors announced. Prosecutors sentenced him to pay the victim $3,000 in reparations and register as a sex offender.
Steele’s indictment is part of a Justice Department campaign known as Project Safe Childhood, which aims to tackle “the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse,” officials said. According to officials, the project combines federal, state, and local resources to rescue child sexual exploitation victims and locate and prosecute suspected criminals.