Abilene Preschool Teacher Sentenced for Paying Boys to Make Sex Tapes

ABILENE, TX — A former preschool teacher in Abilene has been sentenced to 30 years in federal prison after admitting he paid two young boys to produce sexually explicit videos, federal authorities announced April 25.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office Northern Division, Mark Penfield Eichorn, 28, pleaded guilty in October 2024 to one count of Production of Child Pornography after being indicted in June. U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix sentenced him to the statutory maximum, 360 months, and ordered him to pay $66,087.50 in restitution.

According to court documents, Eichorn admitted to paying two boys, ages 12 and 13, to perform sex acts on each other and record it. At the time, he was employed as a teacher at a private school in the Abilene area.

“This defendant made the depraved decision to exploit children, not only failing to meet any standard of human decency but choosing to victimize them through the production of sexually explicit materials,” said Travis Pickard, Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations Dallas. 

“Thanks to the collaborative effort of our law enforcement partners, Mr. Eichorn will now spend the next 30 years behind bars, unable to harm another child.”

Court documents state Eichorn admitted to struggling with desires to sexually assault children since 2019. He also confessed to being active in child pornography trading groups on online platforms such as Kik and Telegram, where he possessed and distributed graphic material, including a video involving a child between the ages of 10 and 12.

At the time of his arrest, Eichorn was employed as a teacher at a local private school. Investigators said Eichorn contacted one of the victims in this case online and offered to send him $100 per week to be his “Sugar Daddy.” He eventually paid both boys hundreds of dollars for the illicit content.

At sentencing, Judge Hendrix said the maximum punishment was clearly warranted for “protection of the public.”

“I have to make a lot of difficult decisions,” he told Eichorn. “This is not one of them.”