Former teaching assistant admits to luring teen girls into taking explicit photos
Gary CraigA former Newark teaching assistant has admitted that he received sexually explicit pictures from teenagers and recorded minors as they undressed at his photo studio.
Matthew Holland, 29, pleaded guilty in federal court Tuesday to production of child pornography and possession of child pornography involving prepubescent minors. The charges have a mandatory 15-year sentence and a maximum of 50 years.
Holland was a teaching assistant in the Newark Central School District as well as at the Canandaigua YMCA. He also had a Newark photo studio, Illumination Images.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kyle Rossi said in a news release that Holland's crimes occurred between 2016 and 2020 and included coercing minors to engage in child pornography; surreptitiously recording minors as they undressed in homes, at the YMCA, and at the photo studio; and downloading and possessing hundreds of images of child pornography.
On Snapchat, Holland posed as a teenage boy and would then send pictures of an attractive teenage boy to girls whom he'd engaged in conversations. He would convince some girls to send him nude or semi-nude photos. Some of the girls were students whom he knew and, if they balked, he threatened them by revealing that he knew where they lived and who their relatives were.
The girls were between 13 and 16.
His acts were discovered when a girl in Loudon County, Virginia told police that Holland had coerced her into sending explicit photos and videos.
According to authorities, Holland also:
• Photographed five young children at the Canandaigua YMCA as they changed in a locker room.
• Had a secret recording device where he recorded minors changing clothes in his studio dressing room,
• Surreptitiously recorded a girl undressing in a bathroom.
• Had hundreds of images of child pornography, including ones of violence against toddlers.
Contact Gary Craig at gcraig@gannett.com or at 585-258-2479. Follow him on Twitter at gcraig1.