He posed as a ride-share driver. Now he's headed to prison for 'deviant' assaults on teens

PROVIDENCE — A federal judge on Thursday sentenced a Woonsocket man who filmed himself molesting two teenage girls to serve 30 years, saying the court needed to protect society from crimes that were both predatory and deviant.

U.S. District Court Judge William E. Smith gave Francis Scott, 42, the mandatory minimum term of 30 years in prison for each of two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor to be served concurrently. He also received 10 years for child pornography for filming himself committing sex acts on the teens, also to be served simultaneously.

Scott, Smith said, had exhibited behavior that was clearly a pattern and not a one-time thing and was aimed at the most vulnerable in society: children.

“There is something very deviant and predatory about what you did here,” Smith said Thursday as one of Scott’s victims observed remotely and Scott's family sat in court.

Smith urged Scott to use his time in prison to address his dark compulsions for society’s sake.

What led to Scott's arrest in 2017

The Providence police arrested Scott in February 2017 after authorities said a 15-year-old girl told officers a man had lured her into his car by posing as an Uber driver, then sexually assaulted her behind a shopping plaza after taking her cellphone.

The teenager refused his propositions and told him she didn’t know how. He then sexually assaulted her while recording on his cellphone.

The teenager reported the assault, and according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Denise Barton, Scott implicated himself in another sexual assaults while talking with detectives.

Investigators found a trove of videos capturing Scott engaged in sex acts with women who appeared semi conscious, unconscious, and inebriated on his cellphone. Some looked to be in their teens.

After Scott’s arrest was publicized, the Providence police said other women came forward. A 17-year-old girl who knew Scott from Facebook as “Self Made” rode with him and two others from Central Falls to another location, Barton said. During the ride, Scott gave the teen alcohol and marijuana.

He then asked for sex, telling the teenager that she was “not going to get rides for free,” Barton said. After she refused his requests, he sexually assaulted her while filming on his cellphone.

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Evidence reveals a pattern of molestations and assaults

Altogether, evidence showed that Scott had sexually assaulted four teenagers and women from November 2015 through his arrest in February 2017, Barton said. He is also facing kidnapping, sexual assault and robbery charges in state Superior Court to which he has pleaded not guilty.

Barton read a letter from one of Scott’s victims, now 21 and still struggling to overcome the assault.

“I was disgusted by myself and the whole thing,” Barton said. She couldn’t eat without throwing up or sleep at night, and was wracked with fear around older men, even her family members.

“Because of one man my adolescence was taken away,” she said.

In asking for a severe sentence, Barton pointed to the videos of Scott performing acts on obviously impaired females stretched out in a car he had used as a “mobile kidnapping station.”

His crimes at the time struck fear in the community about ride-share services.

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Scott's lawyer seeks leniency

Scott’s lawyer, Noah Kilroy, asked that he serve 25 years, emphasizing the trauma he endured as a child whose parents and siblings were gripped by crack cocaine use. Scott lived with a friend, only to have that child’s mother molest him as a teen, Kilroy said.

“What I do know is that he experienced trauma at a very young age,” Kilroy said.

Smith said that while he saw many defendants with troubled pasts, trauma alone could not explain Scott’s turn toward darkness.

Scott apologized to his victims, the police and the court.

“Most nights I cry myself to sleep thinking about how much I disgraced my family,” Scott said. “I pray for forgiveness and for a chance to do better as a citizen.”

Smith gave Scott 20 years of supervised release after he is freed from prison and ordered him to undergo mental health and sex offender treatment. Scotts has been held at the Adult Correctional Institutions since his arrest.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Man who posed as ride-share driver sentenced for 'deviant' assaults