Florida teacher who secretly recorded more than 100 naked girls in his classroom sentenced to 15 years
A Florida teacher who secretly filmed dozens of students changing clothes in his fashion design classroom was sentenced to 15 years behind bars.
Mark William Ackett, who will also remain a registered sex offender for the rest of his life, was sentenced on Monday in a Tampa courtroom.
“There’s so much suffering in this case by so many different people due to the actions of the defendant. There’s very little I can say today to make any of that better,” Judge Laura Ward said, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
Last month, the 52-year-old former teacher pleaded guilty to 324 counts of video voyeurism.
His defense lawyers asked for a maximum sentence of three years, plus probation, saying that their client would continue seeking treatment for a diagnosed “voyeuristic disorder.”
During the two-hour sentencing hearing, Ackett stayed composed while some of his friends, fellow church members, as well as his wife of 30 years, begged for leniency.
According to the paper, the disgraced teacher couldn’t bring himself to look at the dozens of former students and colleagues who attended the hearing.
The first victim to speak, Eva Applebee, worked alongside Ackett for 12 years, when he was an assistant principal at Bloomingdale High School, and then again when he returned to the school in 2017 after a stint working in the district offices.
“What Mark did was not an isolated lapse of judgement but calculated and deliberate criminal acts,” she said. “Mark groomed and chose his victims — gaining their trust and then taking advantage of them.”
She also spoke of the shock she felt after learning she was the only adult in the videos.
According to prosecutors, after Ackett returned to the school as the girl’s track coach and fashion design teacher in 2017, he collected, cropped and edited hundreds of nude and partially-nude videos and photos of 125 victims changing in the fashion design class dressing room — 124 of them were students.
“When I found out what you had done I was filled with disgust, but when I found out I was a victim I was filled with hate,” one of the victims told Ackett on Monday.
“I hope you can get the help you need, because you need help, and I hope that one day I can see you in heaven. But I think you need nothing less than the maximum sentence for everything you’ve done to us,” she said.
Addressing the court, Ackett expressed remorse.
“I wish I could go back and change what I did, or do something to make amends but I know that I cannot,” he said.
“I feel especially ashamed of what I did because you treated me with such care. Some of you confided in me your fears and problems, and many of you consider my classroom a safe place to escape the problems that you face. I will never forgive myself for turning something that should have been a fond memory for you into something that you would rather forget,” he added.
Ackett was only caught because one of his students noticed a box with a light coming from it, when she was changing in a dressing area inside the classroom. Inside the box she found a cell phone that appeared to be recording.
The 17-year-old student found a second cell phone and reported it to the school principal, who contacted Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office.
Ackett later told officials that he had been recording students without their knowledge since January 2017.
