“Hundreds” of U-Delaware Women Recorded in Bathrooms

Former graduate student charged in the matter.

Well, this is just gross. A University of Delaware grad student has been arrested and charged with 21 felony counts of violation privacy — all stemming from bathroom cameras on the campus that may have recorded hundreds of women over the years.

AP reports: “On Friday, authorities announced the July 1 arrest of a University of Delaware graduate student after cameras were found in women’s restrooms on campus. They said 38-year-old Javier Mendiola-Soto [pictured], a doctoral student from Mexico, has been charged with 21 counts of felony violation of privacy was being held in Wilmington. A lawyer for the suspect could not immediately be located.”

The Delaware News-Journal adds:

While hundreds of women were illicitly recorded, the state attorney general’s office believes it now has enough evidence to successfully prosecute the suspect, UD’s executive director of campus and public safety, Skip Homiak, said Saturday.

Homiak said the suspect, former doctoral candidate Javier Mendiola-Soto, has told UD Police he downloaded 1,500 separate videos taken of women using miniature cameras he hid in sanitary napkin dispensers in bathroom stalls on and around campus. But with some of the women having been recorded “three or four times,” Homiak said, “hundreds” of victims would be an accurate estimate.

Mendiola-Soto has been expelled from the university, Homiak added.

Gawker sums up: “Fortunately, the Middletown Police Department concluded that none of the videos Mendiola-Soto shot were shared electronically. So at least there’s that small bit of slightly good news in this horrific case.”

UDel is making counseling available to “any member of the UD community, present or former, who requests it in connection with this recording activity.” Request counseling support at 302-831-4800. The school is also asking that anyone with more info contact contact University of Delaware Police at 302-831-2222 or email UDPrivacy@udel.edu.