Investigators learned Hensley had over 700 files of images of over 40 female students, ranging from ages 12 to 18, using a private bathroom in his nursing station that he captured with the small video camera, according to the affidavit. — Photo by Tom Rogerson on Unsplash
A former high school nurse secretly took over 700 photos of dozens of female students using a hidden camera in a private bathroom in his nurse’s station, US federal officials said.
Now the former Northeast High School nurse in Clarksville, Tennessee, is headed to prison after pleading guilty to 25 counts related to child pornography crimes in September, according to prosecutors.
Leon B. Hensley, 42, was sentenced to 24 years and four months in prison on April 3, the US Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Tennessee announced in a news release.
The sentence stems from Hensley’s arrest in May 2021 after law enforcement learned he texted a nude photo of a woman to a female child in Clarksville whom he asked to pose for him in a photo shoot, according to prosecutors and court documents.
Further investigation revealed he had hundreds of files of child pornography on his electronic devices, including on his phone, a small camera and an SD card, according to court documents.
“Mr. Hensley violated unsuspecting students by unlawfully invading their privacy – by using his position of trust as a school administrator to exploit them,” Rana Saoud, special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Nashville, said in a statement.
Hensley’s attorney Dumaka Shabazz declined a request for comment from McClatchy News on April 5.
Hensley was also found to have images of women in hospital rooms, airports, tanning beds and “upskirt videos” of both adults and minor females, prosecutors said.
More on the case
The Clarksville Police Department began investigating Hensley after receiving a report about him sending a photo of a nude woman to a minor in 2019, according to an affidavit filed in federal court.
He worked at NEHS as the school nurse from August 2017 until November 2019, when he was fired due to the police investigation, during which he admitted to messaging the minor, the affidavit says.
After Hensley allowed officers to search his cellphone, they found a folder named “decoy folder” with images involving the sexual exploitation of “postpubescent” minor children, according to the affidavit.
The folder contained additional folders, including one titled “NEHS,” which investigators believe stands for Northeast High School, the affidavit says.
The search of the folders on Hensley’s phone revealed he had nude photos of five female Northeast High School students who were unaware he had the images, according to the affidavit.
Two students thought they were sending the photos of themselves to another high school student while the three other students thought they sent the images to a modelling agency, the affidavit says.
After Hensley’s phone was searched, detectives executed a search warrant of his home and seized his electronic devices, including a small, black video camera, according to the affidavit. These devices were turned over to special agent Matthew Stephenson of the United States Secret Service in Nashville.
Hidden camera in school bathroom
Investigators learned Hensley had over 700 files of images of over 40 female students, ranging from ages 12 to 18, using a private bathroom in his nursing station that he captured with the small video camera, according to the affidavit.
The camera capturing the students undressed was placed “directly across and in front of the toilet seat, at toilet seat level”, the affidavit says.
Additional images taken of seemingly unaware victims
Over 200 other images on Hensley’s devices showed minor females in hospital exam rooms, pre-operation or post-operation rooms, and naked women in tanning beds that appeared to be taken without them knowing, according to the affidavit.
Seven of those image files were taken at Tennova Hospital in Clarksville, where Hensley previously worked before becoming the school nurse at Northeast High School, the affidavit says.
One of the image files is a 13-second video, which appears to be recorded by a person wearing a camera, and shows a minor female, according to the affidavit. The person appears to lift up a bed sheet covering the minor and their genital area is seen, the affidavit says.
HSI, the US Secret Service, the FBI and Clarksville police jointly investigated Hensley, prosecutors said.
Clarksville is about 50 miles northwest of Nashville. – The Charlotte Observer/Tribune News Service
