Federal prosecutors reported that A New York man who secretly recorded hundreds of women and girls in a public bathroom at a local park where he worked has been arrested.
The United States Attorney’s Office, Southern District of New York, revealed that John Towers, 54, placed hidden cameras in the women’s restroom of a public park in Putnam County, New York.
Authorities declined to share the name of the public park.
Towers allegedly used the placed cameras to capture “prepubescent minors” and women using the bathroom.
“John Towers’ alleged disruptive conduct violated the public trust by placing hidden cameras in a public restroom and using them to capture sexually explicit images of children,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in remarks cited by Fox News.
“As today’s arrest shows, we will use all available law enforcement tools to investigate and prosecute those who are alleged to have sexually exploited children,” he added.
Towers allegedly used an old cell phone and 10 “spy cameras” to record approximately 800 explicit videos of girls and women using the bathroom.according to a Manhattan federal complaint.
They also found more than 6,000 images and videos that had been uploaded to the Internet, according to the complaint.
Authorities said three of the spy cameras were designed to look like pens, and others looked like a battery, an antenna and a small camera that looked like a button.
Towers transferred the recordings to a hard drive, prosecutors alleged.
Searching Towers’ home on March 19, authorities found computers and hard drives filled with pornographic images.
Many of the files contained the misspelled term “yung,” prosecutors alleged.
Federal authorities believe the hidden cameras were in the bathroom from at least July 24, 2018, to December 9, 2019.
Towers is charged in the federal complaint with sexual exploitation of a minor, which carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in prison and a maximum sentence of 30 years, and possession of child pornography, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
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