A Florida middle school teacher faces felony child pornography charges and is also accused of sexually abusing animals.
David Robert McKeown, 47, was charged with 19 felony counts of possession of child sexual abuse material and six felony counts of sexually abusing animals. Police said that his online activity often occurred on school grounds and that he shared pictures and personal information of students, as well.
"This arrest is deeply disturbing," said Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Mark Glass. "Not only was this individual trafficking in vile material, but he was doing it on school grounds, during school hours, surrounded by children. At FDLE, we will never allow predators to hide behind screens or school walls. We will track them down, expose them, and bring them to justice."
The FDLE and Holly Hill police launched a joint investigation after receiving a cybertip on June 2 from the National Center for Missing and Endangered Children (NCMEC). The tip indicated that someone was using a Discord account to share multiple files depicting the sexual abuse of children.
Police were able to connect the account to McKeown, a United Brethren in Christ (UBIC) Academy middle school teacher. Police said that he received and shared 19 files depicting child sexual abuse along with six other files depicting McKeown sexually abusing animals.
According to police, McKeown downloaded and communicated with other Discord users during school hours while connected to the school's Wi-Fi network. They also discovered that he had been sharing the personal information and photographs of possible UBIC Academy students. Investigators found artificial intelligence-generated files that depicted the sexual abuse of children.
