A Roxboro man was sentenced Friday in federal court to 40 years in prison on charges of child exploitation.
Andre Alan Thorpe, 36, of Roxboro, pleaded guilty on May 2, in U.S. District Court in Raleigh to charges of production of child pornography and possession of child pornography.
According to U.S. Attorney Robert Higdon, Thorpe sexually abused a minor boy from 2013 until April 29, 2016.
Thorpe was the leader of a church pantomine group and used his position of authority to build a relationship with the boy and then used drugs and manipulation to control the victim.
The boy and his family eventually moved out of North Carolina to get away from Thorpe, but in 2015, Thorpe arranged for the boy, who was then 15, to move back to the state and the abuse continued.
The boy later went back home to live with his family, but Thorpe brought him back to North Carolina in February 2016. On April 25, 2016, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Thorpe and the victim were participating in a church event in Raleigh when Thorpe took the boy to a home in Raleigh where he had sexual contact with the boy and photographed it. Law enforcement officers rescued the boy on April 29, 2016. Officers later seized Thorpe’s cell phone and discovered images of child pornography on the devise.
Once Thorpe’s sentence is complete, he will remain on supervised release for the remainder of his life.
U.S. District Judge James C. Dever III handed down the sentence Friday.
“We are very pleased the court saw fit to sentence Andre Alan Thorpe to some 40 years in federal prison. The victim in this case – and the victim’s family – have been terrorized,” Higdon said.
Agents from the Department of Homeland Security and the Raleigh Police Department conducted the investigation.