Former youth gymnastics coach hid a camera in a Mississippi gym bathroom. Now a judge has handed him the maximum sentence of 90 years

A former youth gymnastics coach, Sean Gardner, has been sentenced to 90 years in prison after secretly recording young female athletes undressing and using the bathroom at a Mississippi gym, according to CBS News. Investigators recovered the footage from Gardner’s computers years later while examining allegations that he had sexually abused gymnasts in Iowa, and seized approximately 50 videos and 400 photos from his residence, according to an FBI affidavit.

U.S. District Judge Kristi Johnson handed him the maximum possible sentence, ordering him to serve 30 years for each of three federal charges involving the production of child sexual abuse material. Gardner, 39, pleaded guilty to the charges, as noted in a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

The case began with Gardner’s decision to place a hidden camera in a bathroom at a gymnastics studio in Purvis, Mississippi. According to investigators, he used it to record his students between December 2017 and April 2018, creating videos that showed at least 10 minors naked or undressing.

Former students allege inappropriate contact

Several former students have accused Gardner of inappropriate conduct in police reports and civil lawsuits. One former student, Liberty Raines, said that Gardner had made physical contact with gymnasts seem like a normal part of practice. “Each of us would line up to get a hug, and he would kiss us on our forehead, and pat us each on the butt,” she recalled.

Raines said the routine happened at the end of nearly every practice, adding that the behavior had become so familiar that the children did not question it. “It was so normalized,” she said. “I don’t think any of us thought anything of it.” The mother of another young Mississippi gymnast emailed USA Gymnastics about her concerns over Gardner’s behavior, and Gardner’s boss in Mississippi said she told the organization about his “grooming behavior” in January 2018.

After moving to Iowa, Gardner began coaching Finley Weldon, an 11-year-old gymnast. Weldon later said that he made inappropriate jokes and asked teenage girls about their sex lives. “I knew something was not really right about him,” she said. Weldon also alleged that Gardner touched her inappropriately during stretching and while spotting her during training.

Gardner has not been criminally charged in connection with any of the Iowa allegations, and police have said they would decide how to proceed after the federal case concludes. Civil lawsuits allege that USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Center for SafeSport were told about Gardner’s behavior in 2017 but failed to remove him from the sport for years. SafeSport has said it learned during its investigation that gym founder Liang Qiao and other coaches had been aware of sexual misconduct allegations against Gardner but did not report them to the center as required.