Former day care worker accused of making child porn at NC church gets prison time
A former North Carolina day care worker accused of making child pornography on the job is now heading to prison, officials said.
Alyson Brooke Saunders, 25, was working at Fellowship Day School when she took illicit photos and videos of kids in 2019, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. The day care center had been part of Fellowship Presbyterian Church in Greensboro.
“The defendant in this case exploited her position as a caregiver to produce sexually explicit images of vulnerable young children with the purpose of providing the images to a co-conspirator,” Nicholas L. McQuaid, an acting assistant attorney general for criminal investigations, said Tuesday in a news release.
Now, Saunders is ordered to serve a 50-year prison sentence in the child pornography case. An attorney for Saunders didn’t immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment on Wednesday.
Fellowship Day School said it suspended an employee after federal and state agents visited the child care center in March 2019. Saunders was fired after her arrest one month later, McClatchy News reported.
At the time, officials said children’s families were informed of the allegations.
Saunders is accused of making explicit photos and videos on her iPhone before sending them to an international contact who planned to post them online. In some of the graphic content, she “also engaged in hands-on sexual abuse of some of the children,” according to federal officials.
“The abuse allegedly happened at the daycare, some of it on a changing room table,” WGHP reported in 2019.
As of Wednesday, Fellowship Day School on its website said it doesn’t plan to open next school year due to a “number of obstacles, primarily those related to insurance.”
“March 2019 was difficult for the Day School and its families,” the Rev. Kathryn G. N. Campbell wrote in the online post. “An assistant teacher was arrested for alleged crimes against children while working at the School. The School and its families were shocked and saddened by what apparently happened.”
In November 2020, Saunders pleaded guilty to one count each of production of child pornography and distribution of child pornography. She was sentenced to five decades in prison, then another 20 years of supervised release.
This story was originally published April 28, 2021 at 1:30 PM with the headline "Former day care worker accused of making child porn at NC church gets prison time."
