Press "Enter" to skip to content

Former OC social worker gets prison for distributing child porn

A former Orange County social worker who distributed sexually explicit videos of children was sentenced Monday to eight years in federal prison.

Carlos Castillo, 62, also was ordered to pay restitution to his victims after previously pleading guilty to a felony count of distributing child pornography.

Castillo, a Santa Ana resident, worked at the Orange County Social Services Agency from May 2002 to January 2020, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office. During much of that time his work responsibilities included assessing the suitability of adults who wanted to provide care for children in protective custody, prosecutors said, as well as placing children into homes.

According to court filings, Castillo in November 2019 posted videos of child pornography – including videos depicting infants and toddlers being sexually assaulted by adults and other children – in a subgroup on a website where they were later discovered by an undercover law enforcement agent.

Under his plea deal, Castillo admitted to having more than 1,000 videos and 900 images of child pornography on a desktop computer, two flash drives and his iPhone. He also acknowledged having videos of minors undressing that he recorded on a live broadcasting app and pictures of minors he took in public without their or their parents knowledge.

According to a sentencing brief filed by prosecutors, Castillo has agreed to pay $5,000 each to seven identified victims. The prosecutors noted that those minors “must live with the reality that images and videos of their childhood victimization will live on in the internet forever.”

“Defendant’s job was to help the most vulnerable,” the government’s sentencing brief reads. “But, instead, he was exploiting them with his criminal activity.”

An attorney representing Castillo could not immediately be reached for comment. But in a sentencing brief filed with the court, Castillo’s attorney wrote that Castillo did not actually meet with the children who were sexually assaulted in the videos, and there was no evidence he ever acted out sexually with a minor.

The defense attorney wrote that Castillo is “mortified and ashamed” of his actions, and has taken full responsibility and expressed his remorse. The defense attorney also wrote that Castillo suffered from physical, emotional and verbal abuse at the hands of an alcoholic father during his own childhood.

Several friends and family members wrote letters to the court describing Castillo as a fundamentally good person. His defense attorney said Castillo’s wife and two daughters love him but have been devastated by the charges against him.


Source: Orange County Register

Be First to Comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *