A former Parma music teacher who is already serving 50 years in federal prison for child pornography has been sentenced on related state charges.
Music Teacher Who Hid Cameras in School s Bathroom Jailed For 50 Years
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Music teacher sentenced to 50 years in prison following multiple sexual abuse and child pornography charges
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WHECTV Created: March 12, 2021 09:27 PM
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC) The owner of the Close School of Music has pleaded guilty to 61 counts of production of child pornography and 13 counts of possession of material containing child pornography involving prepubescent minors.
Philip M. Close, 43, of Rochester, was arrested in December of 2019 after a parent of one of the students found a camera hidden in the bathroom.
A search warrant was executed on the school, and authorities found videos of Close inappropriately touching his students and himself during lessons. Prosecutors say between 2012 and 2019, Close produced hundreds of videos of child pornography involving 61 identified minor victims. The youngest was just 4 years old.
Between 2016 and 2019, Close owned the Close School of Music on West Ridge Road, where he provided private music lessons to children. He put spy cameras throughout the school and secretly recorded the students, parents, and other teachers, Assistant U.S. Attorney Meghan McGuire said. Two cameras were in the school s only bathroom one under a toiler and the other in a water cooler facing the toilet. McGuire said the cameras were strategically placed in these positions.
Some footage revealed Close inappropriately touched his students and himself during lessons.
Before opening his own school, Close worked at another school between 2012 and 2016, where he also placed hidden cameras in a bathroom.