A veteran Southwest Airlines flight attendant will spend nearly 13 years in prison after FBI agents found hundreds of horrific photos of young children being sexually abused on his cellphone.
The grotesque discovery followed the flight attendant’s arrest for attempted coercion and enticement of a minor to engage in sexual activity, according to legal documents filed in a Florida court.
Brian Walker, 52, of Bradenton, had worked for Southwest Airlines as a flight attendant for more than 24 years when he was arrested at a community pool last June, where he had planned to meet a young girl he had been exchanging sexually explicit messages with.
Unbeknownst to Walker, however, he had actually been exchanging messages with an undercover FBI agent for several weeks after the real 12-year-old girl had told her father about a guy who had been contacting her on TikTok.
Shortly after reporting the messages to local law enforcement, the FBI Suncoast Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force took on the case, and a covert agent took control of the victim’s phone to carry on the conversation with Walker.
At Walker’s request, the conversation soon moved to Snapchat, where he asked who he thought was a 12-year-old girl for intimate photos. He also said he would like to spend a week with the victim in a hotel room.
As the conversation continued, Walker started to discuss more sexually explicit things, saying that he had previously touched young girls in secret places in his community, and sharing other disturbing details like a sexually explicit he performed on a nine-year-old girl.
By June 23, 2024, Walker allegedly became insistent on meeting the victim at a local community pool. The covert agent agreed to meet Walker the following day, where FBI agents were waiting to take him into custody.
During an interview, Walker admitted to FBI agents that he was attracted to minor females but denied having ever touched a young girl, explaining that what he had said in his messages to the supposed victim was just fantasy.
His phone was seized, and “hundreds of images and videos of minors, including those under the age of 12 years, engaged in sexually explicit conduct” were discovered.
After pleading guilty to attempted coercion and enticement of a minor to engage in sexual activity, and possession of child sexual abuse material in March, Walker was sentenced last week.
He received a sentence of 12 years and 7 months in federal prison, which will be followed by 20 years of supervised release.
In April, a pilot who works for a regional subsidiary of American Airlines was arrested on charges of child sexual exploitation after police found hours’ worth of horrific videos purportedly showing him abusing his own daughter on his iPhone.
The pilot, who worked as a First Officer for PSA Airlines based in Dayton, Ohio, was caught after he showed some of the videos to a sex worker whom he had hired during a layover.
The sex worker was so appalled by what she saw that she stole the pilot’s phone and ran to a police station to report him to the police. A video discovered on the phone showed someone with the likeness of the suspect having sexual intercourse with a minor child, according to a criminal affidavit.
You know it’s got to be bad if a sex worker reports someone to the police.
There really are no words for this horrific behavior. I wish Walker had gotten more than 12 years.