Sacramento pilot convicted of traveling to PH to rape kids
SACRAMENTO, California — A local resident who worked as a pilot was convicted September 5 in U.S. District Court here of traveling to the Philippines to engage in sex with minors and to buy children for sex and pornography.
Michael Carey Clemans, 57, also pleaded guilty on three additional charges of conspiracy to produce child pornography and making and receiving child pornography.
Evidence showed that Clemans conspired with a woman in the Philippines to make child pornography while he was living in Bangkok, Thailand and working as an airline pilot.
Clemans returned to his Sacramento residence in April 2015 and maintained online contact with the Filipino woman. Clemans hatched strategies to acquire female children that he could rape.
Clemans told the Filipino woman to look for orphans, victims of typhoons and other vulnerable children and gave her $6,000 to buy photographic equipment and find private places to take sexually explicit photos of the children who were as young as seven.
He also instructed the Filipina how to photograph the naked children so he could choose which ones he would come to the Philippines to rape, especially very young virgins.
Clemans also traveled from the United States to Manila in November 2013, to have sex with minors, including an 11-year-old girl. He often paid a co-conspirator to obtain temporary custody of Filipino children to make child pornography for him.
Sentencing by U.S. District Judge John A. Mendez is set for December 12, 2017. Clemans is facing a mandatory minimum sentence of 30 years in prison for the “buying children” charge, a maximum statutory penalty of life in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Want stories like this delivered straight to your inbox? Stay informed. Stay ahead. Subscribe to InqMORNING