HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, FL (RNN) - A Florida teacher is facing hundreds of additional charges after investigators said they uncovered new evidence on his devices of under-age students being secretly filmed while disrobing.
Mark Ackett, 50, who taught fashion design at Bloomingdale High School in Valrico, FL, was first arrested on Sept. 11.
He was charged with committing video voyeurism on school property as a school employee.
A student found two cell phones hidden in the classroom changing area where she and her classmates changed for fashion assignments. The phones were placed in two separate boxes that had holes cut out for the cellphone camera lenses. At least one of the phones was actively recording, according to a criminal affidavit.
School administrators also found three digital cameras and two storage cards in Ackett’s desk.
He was initially released on a cash bond of $7,500.
But the former school teacher is back in custody after turning himself in Monday.
A forensic search of Ackett’s phones and email accounts by the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office turned up 267 more videos and photos of girls ranging from ages 14 to 18 years old, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
With the new evidence, he now faces an additional 267 charges of video voyeurism, 73 counts of production of harmful material of a minor, and 13 counts of possession of child pornography, the sheriff’s office told the Tampa Bay Times.
Ackett told authorities he only started recording students in January 2017 after he had been hired to teach fashion design.
The girls are in different stages of undressing at the school, the sheriff’s office said.
Ackett’s bail is now set at $2 million.
He served as the assistant principal at the high school from 2006 to 2009. He was also the girls track coach. He returned to the school in 2017 after working at the school district’s central office, according to information from the Tampa Bay Times.
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