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Popular Youth Soccer Coach Arrested After Videos Of Him Allegedly Sexually Assaulting Kids Found On Phone
Staff at a restaurant in Franklin, Tennessee allegedly found dozens of “unconscionable videos and pictures of children,” on 63-year-old soccer coach Camilo Campos’ phone, police said.
A Tennessee soccer coach was jailed after a series of graphic videos depicting child sex abuse were allegedly discovered on his phone, which was found at a restaurant, authorities said.
Warning: This story deals with allegations of child sexual abuse.
Camilo Hurtado Campos, 63, was taken into police custody on a series of child sex crime charges, the Franklin Police Department announced on Sunday. He was charged with rape of a child and sexual exploitation of a minor. Authorities said additional charges are pending.
Franklin police said they were recently contacted by a local restaurant after workers there stumbled upon a cell phone that had been left behind by a customer. In the hopes of identifying the owner, employees of the restaurant searched the mobile device for any possible clues, law enforcement said. Instead, the restaurant staff allegedly found multiple “unconscionable videos and pictures of children” being sexually abused.
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Authorities, who later seized the cell phone, ultimately found hundreds more similar videos and photos. In a number of the disturbing recordings, Campos himself could allegedly be seen sexually assaulting at least 10 separate unconscious boys between the ages of 9 and 17.
Police said Campos, who they described as a “popular soccer coach,” has lived in Franklin for the past two decades. Authorities, however, haven’t specified what schools or organized soccer leagues he had been involved with.
Detectives now suspect that Campos prowled local playgrounds in his spare time, recruiting young players for his soccer team, whom he later invited to his house, where they were drugged and raped. Campos also allegedly filmed the encounters. It’s unknown what type of drug Campos allegedly used to sedate his alleged victims or when the videos were filmed.
“We know that he used the guise of the fact that he was a soccer coach … and that’s how he would befriend them,” Franklin Police Lt. Charles Warner told CNN.
Authorities said they’ve now identified at least three of the 10 suspected victims in the videos found on Campos' phone. A number of minor victims, however, have yet to be positively identified.
“We are nowhere close to the end of our review of the evidence in this horrific case,” the Franklin Police Department added in a statement on July 10.
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Officials added that since opening their investigation, five new alleged victims that detectives weren’t aware of have also come forward. They subsequently cautioned that there could be several more alleged victims in the case.
“People who were victims in some of the recordings that have come forward are in their 20s now,” Warner said. “If you do the math, there could be a decade of victims that we don’t know about."
Investigators added that the majority of Campos’ identified victims are male, and also Hispanic, Warner said, per CNN.
“There are undoubtedly more [victims],” Warner added. “We are in the infancy of this investigation, and this could be the tip of the iceberg.”
Anyone with additional information pertaining to the case is urged to call Franklin Police Department at 615-794-2513.
