Hidden Camera Discovered In Female Toilet Student Arrested

A student arrested on suspicion of secretly filming hundreds of women while they used toilets at the University of Delaware has been charged with 21 privacy offences.

Javier Mendiola-Soto, 38, a doctoral student from Mexico, was detained on July 1 after covert cameras were found in tampon dispensers around the University of Delaware, Wilmington, according to court documents.

It is alleged the cameras were found in ladies' toilets at three locations around the university, including the Biotechnology Institute where Mendiola-Soto worked, and in a unisex disabled toilet.

Officers confiscated his laptop, an external hard drive and two mobile phones which led to the seizure of some 1,500 video files, though forensic results suggest none of the films was uploaded to the internet.

Police believe Mendiola-Soto may have been hiding cameras in toilets on and off the campus for at least two years and officers who have viewed the videos have so far identified some 40 victims.

"It is extremely disturbing that this crime was perpetrated against our community invading the privacy of so many women on and around this campus," said the university's president Patrick Harker.

The university has set up a hotline and counselling service for students who believe they may have been filmed.

The university said in a statement it did not reveal Mendiola-Soto's arrest until Friday because "it could not be done before the identification of complaining witnesses ... which required time-consuming forensic work".