NC yacht owner convicted of recording babysitters naked is going to prison, feds say
A 51-year-old man in North Carolina filmed 17 girls, including an 8-year-old, showering and changing aboard his private yacht, prosecutors say.
Now he’ll spend decades in prison.
A federal judge in North Carolina sentenced William Richard Hilliard Jr. to 35 years in prison — more than double what his attorneys sought — after the former Cherryville resident pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography and sexually exploiting minors last year, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a news release.
In sentencing documents, prosecutors pointed to an evaluation of Hilliard that revealed his “affinity for the ‘Girls Gone Wild’ videos.”
“Defendant seems to have attempted to live out such a fantasy himself, limited only by the extent of his opportunities,” prosecutors said in a sentencing memorandum. “Ultimately, defendant’s known criminal conduct lasted nearly seven years and only came to an end when his victims caught him in the act and reported him to the police.”
Hilliard was arrested in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, in 2018 after a group of girls accused him of using an iPad to film them aboard his yacht, according to The Charlotte Observer and court filings.
He was indicted six months later on a slew of federal charges, court filings show.
According to the Justice Department, Hilliard secretly recorded girls at his homes, on board his yacht and in hotel rooms in North and South Carolina, as well as Alabama. The youngest victim was 5 years old, prosecutors said.
The yacht — which prosecutors described as “ominously titled ‘Yachts O’ Trouble’” — was kept at a marina in Lake Wylie, South Carolina, for two years before he reportedly moved it to the Myrtle Beach area in 2012.
“Court records also show that, at times, Hilliard produced secret recordings of victims he had hired as babysitters for his young children, and used multiple hidden devices to record his victims from different angles while they were using the shower and changing clothes,” the Justice Department said in a news release.
Hilliard also is accused of engaging in sexual acts with one of the victims — his 15-year-old babysitter — and recording it, according to court filings.
He was caught in June 2018 after inviting nine girls, three of whom were minors, out on the yacht in Myrtle Beach, prosecutors said. Hilliard purported to be taking them on a trip to celebrate their high school graduation.
The girls stayed the night on the yacht and went out on the water the next day, according to court filings. Hilliard then told them they could shower before he took them all out for dinner, prosecutors said. A hidden camera and his iPad had reportedly been positioned to film them.
All nine girls took turns showering one at a time before an 18-year-old discovered the iPad, according to court filings.
“After discovering the video recordings, the guests became concerned for their safety,” court documents state. “They fled the yacht with the iPad and went to the local police and made a report.”
In sentencing documents, prosecutors accused Hilliard of showing no remorse for his actions, pointing to jail calls in which he described the videos as “just taking clothes off.”
Hilliard also sent a letter from jail to his brother in which he said he was just trying to “give those girls a great time on the boat for graduation,” according to the government’s sentencing memorandum.
But the letter went on to accuse his victims of being “money-hungry,” prosecutors said.
“Trust me she could of just left the boat and went and got a hotel room, but she def(sic) saw dollar signs and was like… lets go to the police and that is where everything changed… and I would bet the keys to my IROC-Z she was the one pushing the FBI for sure,” Hilliard’s letter states, according to court filings.
Prosecutors pushed for the 35-year sentence — a far cry from Hilliard’s request for 15 years.
Attorneys for Hilliard argued in sentencing documents that he “had a life of success and made a positive impact on those around him.”
Hilliard’s wife divorced him in 2019 because “the marriage could not survive the weight of Richard’s crimes,” his defense attorneys said. But friends described him as “thoughtful” and “a person with a good heart.”
He also posed “a minimal risk to children” based on two independent psychological evaluations and was a first-time offender with a low-risk of recidivism, Hilliard’s sentencing memorandum states.
But a federal judge was inclined to disagree.
Chief U.S. District Judge Martin Reidinger sided with prosecutors in ordering Hilliard to spend 35 years behind bars with a lifetime of supervised release, the Justice Department said. He will also be required to register as a sex offender and was ordered to pay five of his victims $88,474 in restitution.
