A former Vermilion Parish middle school teacher was sentenced last week to 70 years in prison for making and having child pornography.

According to court documents, in 2010, while James Harber was in Ohio he engaged in an online sexual relationship with a woman from Abbeville.

The woman would include her three minor children along with their online sexual relationship.

Harber then moved to Abbeville in 2013 and was hired by the Louisiana Office of Child Services and then later as a middle school teacher.

Court documents say that Harber sexually abused the woman’s children after moving to Louisiana and captured sexually explicit photos of them.

When law enforcement agents searched Harber’s home in 2016 they found numerous images and videos of child pornography on various electronic media, which included pictures downloaded from the internet as well as pictures he took himself sexually exploiting the children.

Harber was sentenced on three counts of production of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography.

He was also sentenced to a lifetime of supervised release and is required to register as a sex offender.