Man investigated for child porn hid in women’s bathroom at Crowders Mountain, feds say
A North Carolina man was under investigation on child pornography charges when park rangers reportedly saw him hiding out in the women’s bathroom at Crowders Mountain State Park, federal prosecutors said.
Now the man, 21-year-old Quinlan Drake Scism, is banned from the park and will serve more than a decade in prison on the child-porn charges.
Scism was sentenced Thursday to 11 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to receiving child pornography, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of North Carolina said in a news release. He was also ordered to pay $35,000 in restitution and register as a sex offender for life.
A Charlotte defense attorney representing Scism, who is from Kings Mountain, did not immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment Friday.
Prosecutors said FBI agents were investigating Scism in late 2019 after he reportedly shared child pornography online. That’s when the Cleveland County Sheriff’s Office was contacted by park rangers at Crowders Mountain, a popular hiking and climbing spot about 30 miles west of Charlotte.
They told the sheriff’s office that Scism had displayed “unusual activity and behavior,” fedreal prosecutors said in a news release Thursday.
“Court records show that, on at least two occasions, Scism was observed hiding in or leaving the women’s restrooms at the park,” prosecutors said.
Scism wasn’t charged in connection to the alleged bathroom incidents, but park officials banned him from Crowders Mountain.
Sometime before, FBI agents in Charlotte had discovered someone was sharing child pornography on the dark web. They reportedly traced the IP address to Scism’s phone and the home he shared with his father. Agents searched the house on September 23, 2019, and interviewed Scism the following day. They also seized several electronic devices, including his iPhone, a thumb drive and hard drive.
“A forensic examination of Scism’s seized devices revealed that he possessed 959 images and 48 videos of child pornography, some of which depicted sadistic and masochistic acts against prepubescent children,” prosecutors said.
Almost a year after the FBI searched his house, Scism waived his right to an indictment and pleaded guilty on Sept. 11 to receiving child pornography, court filings show. A federal judge ordered he remain in prison pending sentencing. Prosecutors said he will be transferred to a federal prison once the facility is chosen.
During his initial interview with investigators, prosecutors said, Scism also admitted to sexually assaulting a minor when he was a teenager.
