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Orlando resident Kyle Blanco, 21, was sentenced on Wednesday to 71 months in prison for being caught with child porn after attempting to surreptitiously record women as they used bathroom stalls at the university, federal authorities announced.
Prosecutors say that in March 2022, an American University student caught Blanco attempting to subtlety film her with his phone from an adjacent stall in a gender-neutral bathroom.
The victim reported the offense to the American University Police Department, which obtained and executed a search warrant for Blanco’s dorm room, leading to unsettling discoveries.
The police seized Blanco’s iPhone and laptop on the merits of the warrant; however, he remotely wiped the phone in an effort to obstruct the government's investigation.
Police investigators were able to search his laptop, which contained additional evidence of previous voyeurism offenses at the school, as well as more than 1,000 child porn files, some of which depict adult men raping prepubescent girls.
According to court documents, one week after his initial court appearance, Blanco violated the terms of his release by downloading an app known to be used to access child porn anonymously that clears the web history of the phone.
Following that incident, the judge revoked Blanco's release conditions, and he turned himself in to US Marshals in Orlando on June 9 last year.
He has been in custody since.
Blanco pleaded guilty in August 2023 to possession of child pornography and voyeurism. In addition to his prison term, Blanco was ordered by a judge to serve 10 years of supervised release and to pay $5,000 in restitution to on of the children identified in the child porn files.
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