SANTA ANA, California
A former Orange County high school teacher was sentenced to 17 years and six months in federal prison for secretly installing hidden cameras in school bathrooms and elsewhere and, over three years, viewing and downloading hundreds of images, including of children under 12, officials stated.
U.S. District Judge John W. Holcomb sentenced Siu Kong Sit, 38, of Rowland Heights.
The judge also ordered Sit to be placed on lifetime supervision after his prison sentence and scheduled a restitution hearing for November 8 in this case.
Sit pleaded guilty on March 29 to one count of possession of child pornography.
“This defendant was every parent’s nightmare—rather than care for the safety and well-being of students, he exploited them in the most abhorrent way,” said U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada. “It is important that we send a strong message of zero tolerance for those who take advantage of children.”
(News Report 2023)
According to Sit’s plea agreement, starting in February 2020, while working as a teacher at Beckman High School in Irvine, he secretly installed hidden cameras in campus restrooms. He regularly reviewed and downloaded videos that interested him.
In May 2022, while coaching the high school robotics team, Sit placed a hidden camera in a hotel restroom where students were staying during a robotics tournament in Texas.
From 2020 to 2023, Sit viewed and downloaded hundreds of images of children and adults in various states of undress using restrooms.
In February 2023, after the cameras had been discovered, law enforcement seized several digital devices from Sit’s home. Sit owned and was the sole user of all these devices. Officers also seized two external storage drives from the cameras that Sit had secretly installed at Beckman High School.
A forensic review of the various digital devices identified dozens of images and videos of child pornography, including images and videos that Sit had recorded himself of children using restrooms in various states of undress. The victims that Sit recorded without their consent were under the age of 18, and some of the victims were under the age of 12.
In February 2023, after the cameras had been discovered, law enforcement seized several digital devices from Sit’s home. Sit owned and was the sole user of all these devices. Officers also seized two external storage drives from the cameras that Sit had secretly installed at Beckman High School.
A forensic review of the various digital devices identified dozens of images and videos of child pornography, including images and videos that Sit had recorded himself of children using restrooms in various states of undress.
The victims that Sit recorded without their consent were under the age of 18, and some of the victims were under the age of 12.
A search of a Sit-owned hard drive resulted in the seizure of at least 22 images and one video of CSAM, including several depicting a toddler engaged in sexual activity.
The search of a separate Sit-owned hard drive contained at least 150 images and four videos of child sexually explicit images.
Sit admitted in his plea agreement to knowingly possessing images and videos of minors under the age of 12 engaging in sexual conduct.
The Orange County District Attorney’s Office is pursuing criminal charges against Sit in Orange County Superior Court concerning the adult victims in the hidden videos matter.
The charges filed in state court concerning Sit’s minor victims was dismissed so the federal case could proceed.
Homeland Security Investigations and the Irvine Police Department investigated this matter.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Melissa S. Rabbani of the Santa Ana Branch Office prosecuted this case.