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A Worcester man has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for sexually exploiting 3 young girls.
Antonio Merced, 29, was sentenced on March 26th by U.S. District Court Judge Margaret R. Guzman to 30 years to be followed by a lifetime of supervised release. This sentence will run consecutive to his state prison sentence. In July 2025, Merced pleaded guilty to 3 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor and 1 count of possession of child pornography.
In July 2024, Merced exposed 2 minors to pornography and sex toys. A subsequent investigation revealed that Merced had been sexually abusing 3 minors and producing videos of their sexual abuse.
Documentation of the abuse occurring in 2023 of a 6-year-old child, and videos created in 2024 of 2 other children being sexually abused by Merced were found during the investigation. At a plea hearing in July 2025, Merced admitted to using the 3 minors to create sexually explicit videos and to possessing hundreds of photos and videos of child sex abuse material of children unknown to him.
Merced was arrested in September 2024 and was subsequently indicted in Worcester Superior Court. He was convicted of 10 counts of aggravated rape of a child and sentenced to 25-30 years in state prison.
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