A former gymnastics instructor and cheerleading coach from McKinney has been sentenced to 20 years in prison by a federal judge after pleading guilty to possessing and transporting child pornography.
Darren Frank McCoy, 55, was accused of recording minors “in various stages of undress” and “unlawfully transported those images and videos as well as disturbing images of child pornography,” according to a press release by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas.
McCoy was also accused of sexually assaulting a 12-year-old, carrying on the abuse for six years. During the sentencing hearing, the victim said she suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder because of the ordeal.
“Darren McCoy is the definition of a predator … [t]hese athletes were betrayed. This so-called coach surreptitiously recorded teens and sexually abused a minor for several years. Hopefully, knowing the only bars he will see now are behind a federal prison cell will give his victims some long-awaited peace,” said U.S. Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani.
McCoy had worked at Metroplex Gymnastics and Swim in Allen and Top Dog Cheer in Montgomery, Alabama.
He was flagged at Galveston Port of Entry when the cruise ship he was on docked. Authorities subjected him to a “secondary inspection” upon learning he was the subject of a child pornography investigation back in 2015.
Child pornography was discovered on his laptop in Galveston. A subsequent search of his residence in McKinney produced even more illicit and obscene material, including 10 videos and hundreds of images of child pornography.
For his crimes, U.S. District Judge Jeffery V. Brown ordered on May 16 that McCoy serve 20 years in federal prison and 10 years of supervised release after that.
Sexual assault and crimes against children are a serious problem in North Texas, especially in Dallas, where 202 sex-related offenses have been logged this year through May 1, according to a crime briefing by the Dallas Police Department.
More up-to-date data on crime in Dallas is currently unavailable, due to an alleged ransomware attack against City servers, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
