BOSTON — A Worcester man who filmed himself while sexually abusing children has been sentenced to three decades in federal prison for his crimes, the U.S. Attorney said Monday.
Antonio Merced, 29, was sentenced in federal court on Thursday to 30 years in prison to be followed by a lifetime of supervised release, U.S. Attorney Leah Foley said in a statement. This sentence will run consecutive to his state prison sentence.
U.S. District Court Judge Margaret Guzman handed down his sentence.
Merced pleaded guilty in July to three counts of sexual exploitation of a minor and one count of possession of child pornography.
In July 2024, Merced exposed two minor victims to pornography and sex toys, prosecutors said.
A subsequent investigation found that Merced had been sexually abusing three minors and producing videos of their sexual abuse, Foley said.
Investigators found documentation of the abuse in 2023 of a six-year-old child, and videos created in 2024 of two other children being sexually abused by Merced.
At a plea hearing in July 2025, Merced admitted to using the three minors to create sexually explicit videos and to possessing hundreds of photos and videos of child sex abuse material of children unknown to him.
Merced was arrested in September 2024 and was subsequently indicted in Worcester Superior Court. He was convicted of 10 counts of aggravated rape of a child and sentenced to 25 to 30 years in state prison.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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