Ex-Pilot Sentenced to Life for Abusing Children

Michael Carey Clemans, a former pilot and army officer, has been sentenced to life in prison for trafficking and abusing children. The details of his case, which authorities have deemed to be deeply “disturbing,” show a string of carefully planned attacks against children as young as seven.

In what legal authorities are calling a “disturbing” case of child exploitation, a former army veteran and commercial airline pilot has been convicted of the trafficking of children, Newseek.com reports. A document filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Eastern District of California records that 57-year-old Michael Carey Clemans has been sentenced “to life in prison for buying children, attempted travel and travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct, conspiracy to travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct, conspiracy to produce child pornography, attempted production and production of child pornography, and receipt of child pornography.”

It has been revealed that Clemans had been abusing children since 2014, when he was employed by a Thai airline in Bangkok. While in the city, he reportedly colluded with women in the Philippines to rape young children and also produced pornography using young children.

Despite returning to California in 2015, Clemans continued to make trips to the Philippines in order to attack and abuse young girls.

Two of his co-conspirators have been named as Lyan Tandag and Shellina Atad. Both women were arrested in the Philippines in 2015 and sentenced to 15 years imprisonment.

According to ABC News, Clemans “meticulously planned” his attacks, using both the Internet and a web of international bank channels to hide his activities.

Commenting on the case in a filing, prosecutors said, “Clemans is precisely the type of person for whom a life sentence exist, (sic) a remorseless child-sex-predator who poses an urgent, persistent, and grievous risk to all children for the rest of his life.”

Presiding over the case, U.S. District Judge John Mendez called Clemans’ actions “unthinkable, inexcusable.”

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