BERLIN – A Worcester County judge sentenced a former childcare worker to 49 years in prison on charges related to sex abuse of a minor and manufacturing child pornography.
Bruce William Travers, 38, was sentenced to 105 years with all but 49 years suspended during a hearing Friday. The sentence came after Travers — well known in the community for the years he spent working in local daycare centers —pleaded guilty in July to six of the more than 30 charges he faced related to child porn and sex abuse.
“The devastation of this case is clear,” Worcester County Circuit Court Judge Brian Shockley said. “It is profound. As the victim statements made clear, it is enduring.”
Travers, who worked at several local daycare centers and in county schools as recently as the spring of 2021, was charged in August 2021 after a tip led to his arrest. According to charging documents, the Maryland State Police Computer Crimes Unit was contacted by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which operates “CyberTipline” to handle reports of child sexual exploitation. The CyberTip included a file that was uploaded to Bing, according to charging documents, and depicted child pornography.
The Worcester County Bureau of Investigation went on to seize laptops, cell phones, thumb drives, camera memory cards and several pieces of children’s clothing from Travers’ residence on Brandywine Drive in Ocean Pines. According to charging documents, Travers admitted to possessing child porn and said he used children’s clothing to fantasize. He also told police three children, all elementary school aged kids, had stayed at his house in the past.
The children’s guardians told police they’d met Travers through his employment at a daycare. Travers reportedly stayed with the family off and on between 2018 and 2021 and was also permitted to care for the children at his residence, according to documents. Forensic examinations on the electronic devices seized revealed various explicit nude photos of the children.
Travers pleaded guilty to six of the more than 30 charges he faced in July. In court Friday, Worcester County Assistant State’s Attorney Pam Correa told the judge that while Travers had no criminal history before these charges, he’d spent years working in childcare, aware that he was attracted to children. She said the guardians of the kids he’d had stay at his home only met and came to trust him after meeting him at a daycare.
“That level of trust and his entry into the home would not have existed but for his employment at Little Lambs,” Correa said.
Bruce Travers
She said Travers had tried to minimize his conduct by claiming he’d only taken photographs of children. She noted however, that in some of the photographs he’d posed the children in ways that mimicked commercial pornography images.
“That is a very deliberate and intentional act,” she said.
Correa added that while there was no evidence of distribution, Travers had spent years taking photos of children. And while he told investigators he’d deleted some of them, she said that didn’t mean he couldn’t still think about them.
“That photograph is always going to be in his head, for his sexual gratification,” she said.
She read a victim impact statement from the guardians of the three elementary school age children that described how Travers had integrated himself into their lives, working as a scout leader and substitute teacher. Another woman whose son was photographed by Travers described the trauma and pain her family had dealt with since learning that Travers had photographed the boy.
Charles Waechter, the private defense attorney representing Travers, told the judge his client was a graduate of Stephen Decatur High School and Salisbury University and had been employed by the Worcester County Board of Education as a substitute teacher in 2020. He said Travers had been assigned to a full-time position at Buckingham Elementary School to begin the next school year but that the offer had been rescinded when Travers was charged last August.
Waechter stressed that the Travers case involved the exploitation of minors but not the physical abuse of minors.
“In most child abuse cases they involve hands on activity,” Waechter said. “In this case we don’t have that.”
Waechter told the judge Travers was dealing with mental health issues, including depressive anxiety disorder and pedophilic disorder. He said that while the state wanted Travers to serve consecutive sentences for the charges, he thought a large portion of the sentence should be suspended.
“I’ve seen every image there is,” Waechter said. “There were a lot of images that quite frankly, while they might not be socially acceptable, they’re not illegal.”
He added that Travers had been candid with investigators once he’d been approached by the police. During Friday’s hearing, Travers apologized to the families involved.
“I’m so sorry for everything,” he said. “My actions, they were wrong and I’m sorry.”
His mother told the judge she didn’t know Travers “had this problem” until last year. She said he’d known he needed help but didn’t know where to go.
“I know he’s remorseful,” she said. “I apologize to the people he affected. I’m sorry. I just want him to get help.”
Shockley said the case was sad for everyone involved.
“These are the most difficult cases,” he said. “They’re the ones that stick with you. They represent in my estimation the most profound breach of trust.”
Shockley said that during the pre-sentence investigation, Travers said there had been occasions when he’d taken pictures of children and deleted them because he hated that it interested him. The investigation also revealed that he’d refrained from getting help because it could affect his career and reputation, according to the judge. Shockley said that showed Travers knew he had a problem and not only didn’t try to address it, but kept putting himself in situations with children.
“He knowingly and voluntarily put himself in a position this could happen,” Shockley said. “That is the height of selfishness. The seriousness of it cannot be minimized.”
In the first case against Travers, Shockley sentenced him to 25 years with all but 10 suspended for a charge of sex abuse of a minor and 10 years with all but three suspended for child porn promotion. In the second case, Shockley sentenced Travers to 25 years with all but 15 suspended for sex abuse of a minor: house/fam, 10 years with all but three suspended for child porn solicit subject, 25 years with all but 15 suspended for sex abuse of a minor: house/fam and 10 years with all but three suspended in child porn film in sex act. The sentences, which when put together total 105 years with all but 49 suspended, will be served consecutively. At least 50% of the sentence must be served before Travers is eligible for parole. Upon release he will have five years of supervised probation and will have to register as a Tier III sex offender for life.
