Former janitor admits taping girls in stall

A former maintenance worker at a Beaver County middle school admitted Monday in federal court that he secretly videotaped dozens of female teachers and students inside a bathroom stall.

Phillip D. Winkle, 32, of Aliquippa, Beaver County, pleaded guilty to possessing material depicting the sexual exploitation of a minor.

Two computers seized from Winkle's home contained 171 video recordings, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Kaufman. Some 40 of those recordings were of students. Most of them were 12 to 13 years old, but Kaufman said one girl "was so young, she had to lift herself onto the seat."

Winkle drilled a hole through a maintenance-room wall at Center Area Middle School in Center, and installed a pinhole camera that peered into the bathroom, Kaufman said. The camera was usually set on automatic and the recordings included audio. On 17 occasions, Winkle manually operated the camera, Kaufman said.

The hidden camera was discovered after two maintenance workers found Winkle sitting alone in the dark maintenance room.

"They found this suspicious and went back later to investigate," Kaufman said. "That's when they found the peephole camera."

Winkle faces up to 10 years in prison when he is sentenced by U.S. District Judge Arthur J. Schwab in September. The four counts of invasion of privacy he is charged with in state court will be dropped, Kaufman said.

Winkle is free on $10,000 bond. Schwab ordered that he not have contact with minors, either in person or via the Internet.