A former youth gymnastics coach has been sentenced to 90 years in federal prison for secretly recording young female gymnasts undressing and using the bathroom at a Mississippi gym.
U.S. District Judge Kristi Johnson handed the maximum sentence to Sean Gardner, 39, on Wednesday, 14th October, ordering him to serve 30 years for each of three federal child pornography production charges to which he pleaded guilty. The sentence amounts to life in prison.
Gardner pleaded guilty to placing a hidden camera in a bathroom at a gymnastics studio in Purvis, Mississippi, between December 2017 and April 2018 to record his students.
According to investigators, he created videos showing close-up images of at least 10 minors naked or undressing. The videos were recovered from his computers years later while the FBI was investigating separate allegations that he sexually abused gymnasts in Iowa.
Gardner was arrested by the FBI last summer, in a case first reported by The Associated Press. He was a once-prominent coach at Chow’s Gymnastics and Dance Institute in West Des Moines, Iowa, founded by Liang “Chow” Qiao, known for training Olympic champions.
Several former students at the Iowa institute have alleged in police reports and civil lawsuits that he used his position to prey on them. Gardner has not been charged in connection with the Iowa allegations.
The sentencing has renewed scrutiny over whether U.S. gymnastics authorities did enough to protect athletes, with lawyers alleging USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Center for SafeSport were informed of concerns about Gardner as early as 2017.
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