New York man allegedly placed hidden cameras in public park restroom; captured explicit images of children

A New York man secretly recorded hundreds of women and girls in a public restroom at a local park where he worked, federal prosecutors allege.

The U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of New York, said that 54-year-old John Towers planted hidden cameras in the ladies' room of a public park in Putnam County, New York — authorities declined to share the name of the public park.

Towers allegedly used the planted cameras to capture "prepubescent minors" and females using the bathroom.

"John Towers’s alleged disturbing conduct violated the public’s trust by placing hidden cameras in a public bathroom and using those cameras to capture sexually explicit images of children," U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said. "As today’s arrest shows, we will use every tool available to law enforcement to investigate and prosecute those alleged to have sexually exploited children." 

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Towers allegedly used an old cellphone and 10 "spy cameras" to record approximately 800 explicit videos of girls and women using the bathroom, a Manhattan federal complaint said.

They also found more than 6,000 images and videos that had been uploaded to the internet, according to the complaint.

Authorities said that three of the spy cameras were designed to look like ballpoint pens, and others looked like a battery pack, an antenna and a tiny camera that looked like a button.

Towers transferred the recordings to a hard drive, prosecutors alleged.

When investigating 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.

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Federal authorities believe that the hidden cameras were in the bathroom from at least July 24, 2018, until Dec. 9, 2019.

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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.