Janitor Admits Planting Hidden Cameras In Catholic School, Won’t Go To Jail
If you see this guy walking down the street anytime soon, feel free to give him a good hard slug across the face.
42-year-old John Martin of Wenonah, New Jersey (it’s about ten miles south of Philadelphia) has pleaded guilty to invasion of privacy and child endangerment after investigators learned that he planted hidden video cameras inside Gloucester Catholic High School, where he worked as a janitor.
According to the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office, Martin hid the quarter-inch cameras in ventilation ducts and smoke detectors in several areas of the school and used them to record video of students and teachers in areas that were sometimes used for changing. Some of the videos contain nudity.
Obviously, any school employee caught secretly taking videos of your children would be sent to jail, right? Not in Martin’s case.
When he is sentenced in December by Superior Court Judge Lee Solomon, the most he faces is parole. Granted, that parole is for the rest of his life, and he’ll be placed on the state’s sex offender registry.
But still: something tells me that he could use a little time in a nice cold jail cell to think about what he’s done.
A spokesman for the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
A woman who answered the phone at Martin’s home promptly hung up on me. Twice.
UPDATE: Jason Laughlin, spokesperson for the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office, called me to defend the plea deal in this case. He points out that Martin does not have a criminal record and that due to the terms of the agreement, he will “never have access to underage people again.”
Laughlin confirms that there were multiple instances of nudity in the videos and that at least one involved a girl under 16.
“As distasteful and disgusting as this is, it didn’t involve touching or physically harming,” says Laughlin. “Our priority was making sure that he couldn’t work in a school setting again. It’s on his permanent record.”
