Colo. man convicted of kidnapping, abusing toddler

DENVER — A federal jury convicted a Colorado man of repeatedly secretly kidnapping his friends' toddler, sexually abusing the child, and then sneaking him back into their California home while they slept.

Shawn McCormack, 31, of Colorado Springs was convicted Friday following a four-day trial on four counts of sexual exploitation of a child, and two counts of kidnapping. Some of the charges stemmed from previous abuse of the boy's older sister. Court records indicate McCormack was a high school friend of the children's father.

According to prosecutors, McCormack stayed at the couple's Bakersfield, Calif. home on multiple occasions, took the younger boy at night, and then photographed and video recorded himself abusing the 11-month-old boy in a nearby motel. McCormack distributed the images and videos online, where they were found by an undercover officer with the Toronto Police Services, federal prosecutors said.

Separately, Homeland Security Investigations agents in Boston found McCormack's images and recordings on someone else's computer and used the hotel's carpet, bedding and the television show playing in the background to figure out exactly when and where the videos had been produced. Agents confirmed McCormack had rented that hotel room on the night when the recording was created. The two teams then worked together to prosecute McCormack in California.

McCormack has been in federal custody since 2011, and he's scheduled to be sentenced in July.

Federal prosecutors said the case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims.