A former school bus driver who lived near Fort Worth is facing 60 years in prison for sexually exploiting children.
Scott Wayne O’Toole, a 60-year-old man from Joshua, Texas, was sentenced to federal prison on August 28 for producing sexually explicit photos of two children in Fort Worth, according to a press release from the Department of Justice.
Chief U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor sentenced him to 360 months per count, totaling 720 months – or 60 years. According to federal prison records, he is currently detained at Federal Medical Center Fort Worth.
O’Toole was temporarily working as a school bus driver in Fairbanks, Alaska, in November and December 2024, according to another DOJ release.
In December, the Fairbanks Police Department found a USB with child sex abuse materials in the hotel where he was staying. FBI-Anchorage conducted a forensic review of the device on January 30 and found it was linked to O’Toole.
“Agents also found images on the drive allegedly depicting child sexual abuse,” the release reads.
Soon after the USB was discovered, O’Toole returned to Texas. He was wanted by the Fort Worth Police Department for “aggravated sexual assault, child.” Within 24 hours of the FBI analysis, law enforcement found O’Toole in Texas and arrested him.
At the time, he faced one count of possession of child pornography. But in April 2025, he pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual exploitation of children.
The FBI, the Texas Department of Public Safety, and the Fairbanks Police Department coordinated to investigate this case. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in the District of Alaska and in the Northern and Eastern Districts of Texas also assisted.
This case was part of Project Safe Childhood, a national initiative the DOJ launched in 2006 to combat child sexual abuse. The U.S. Attorneys’ offices and the DOJ Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section lead the initiative to prosecute suspects and rescue victims.
The Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex has seen several recent cases of alleged child sex abuse by school bus drivers.
A scandal broke in Prosper in 2022, after a driver allegedly committed sex abuse against two sisters – ages 5 and 7 – more than 100 times, as The Dallas Express previously reported. This led the Texas Education Agency to investigate the district’s superintendent.
In 2023, deputies with the Dallas County Sheriff’s Office arrested a Coppell school bus driver who allegedly committed “aggravated sexual assault of a child,” as The Dallas Express also reported. While the driver’s employer fired him, the Dallas County district attorney dropped the case without explanation.