US lifeguard pleads guilty to hiding cameras in pool locker rooms

NEW YORK - A high school teacher at a Catholic girls’ school has pleaded guilty to four counts of using a hidden camera to videotape girls’ locker rooms at two Manhattan pools last summer.

David Canela, 33, a part time lifeguard, faces anywhere from probation to a year jail when he is sentenced on October 8.

He admitted to video peeping at two pools where he worked, the Lasker Pool on 110th Street in August of 2009, and the YMCA pool at 224 East 47th Street the following month.

“You installed a camera in the girls’ locker room in order to view them while they were changing. Is that true?” the New York Post quoted Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Charles Solomon as asking Canela.

“Yes,” Canela answered.

“You knew it was a crime to do this?” the judge continued.

“Yes,” he replied.

Canela had been chairman of modern languages at the private, all-girls St. Jean Baptiste High School. He was fired after his arrest. The original indictment against him numbered 90 counts.

“He’s very regretful. He’s very remorseful. It’s been a train wreck in his life,” his lawyer, Mitchell Golub, added after the plea. (ANI)