High school janitor sentenced to 60 years for hiding camera in girls bathroom

A former janitor at Oviedo High School in Florida has been sentenced to 60 years in federal prison for planting a camera inside a girls’ bathroom.

Derremy Jerrell Walker, 31, was arrested in February 2020 after he was busted for video voyeurism of a minor, PEOPLE reports.

In November 2019, two girls at the high school found a cell phone under the sink in a stall that was recording and reported it to faculty members, who contacted police. A man is seen at the beginning of some of the videos setting up the phone to actively record. Police linked the phone to Walker because of his tattoos and clothing.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Middle District of Florida said in a news release on Wednesday:  “On the date the girls found the phone, it had been recording video for about 15 minutes before they discovered it. In each of the three instances, Walker had angled the cellphone’s camera in an effort to capture the genitalia of those in the stall.  School administration officials and law enforcement officers were able to identify eight of the 12 students unknowingly captured in the videos Walker created.”

The statement continued, “This is another case brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.”

Walker reportedly recorded at least four videos on different days in November 2019. One recorded a woman inside a teachers’ lounge bathroom, and three of the videos captured images of nine different teens inside the girls’ bathroom, per the report. 

Walker was fired from his custodial job at the school in February 2020 and charged with eight counts of video voyeurism of a person younger than 16 and one count of voyeurism involving a person older than 19, the Orlando Sentinel reported. 

According to the DOJ, Walker put the phone in the same spot over several days inside the girls’ restroom and “each time creating a one-hour video of students in that stall.”

“Further analysis revealed Walker had also set up a surreptitious cellphone camera to record in the school’s faculty bathroom earlier that month,” per the statement.

In July, a federal jury has found Walker guilty of “two counts of using, or attempting to use, children to produce sexually explicit videos.”

“Mr. Walker did more than just produce horror; he stole the innocence and trust of these young victims,” said FBI Tampa Division Special Agent in Charge Michael McPherson. “We are pleased with the sentence handed down in this case and will continue efforts to protect the children in our communities from sexual exploitation and abuse.”

In addition to serving 60 years, Walker must register as a sex offender and will serve a lifetime term of supervised release. 

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