#Contractor allegedly used mirrors to spy on girls in middle school bathroom

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Gregory Mahley
Gloucester Township Police Department

A contractor at a New Jersey middle school is charged with using mirrors to spy on girls inside a bathroom, police said.

Gregory Mahley, 51, of West Deptford, was arrested Wednesday after staffers at Glen Landing Middle School in Gloucester Township spotted mirrors that were installed on interior doors in a girls’ bathroom, police said Thursday.

“Staff became suspicious that someone was peering through an air conditioning vent located overtop of the bathroom stalls,” police said in a statement.

Police Chief David Harkins said employees at the school contacted police and Mahley was taken into custody less than an hour later in an area near the vent, the Cherry Hill Courier-Post reports.

“The most despicable thing that can happen is someone compromising our children where they are typically safe,” Harkins told reporters. “It’s reprehensible.”

There’s no evidence that Mahley had illicit contact with any students and investigators were still determining Thursday whether any young girls were photographed inside the bathroom, where mirrors were found affixed to three stalls, Harkins said.

The chief said the mirrors were positioned in a way that a young teen “may have thought” they were supposed to be there, KYW-TV reports.

Mahley had worked as an eight-year employee for Multi-Temp Mechanical in Westville, which had been contracted by the Gloucester Township Board of Education to handle the school’s heating, ventilation and air conditioning system, police said.

Gloucester Township Public Schools ordered a full inspection of all schools and facilities Mahley may have accessed and no problems were found, police said.

“We’re pretty confident that this is a new incident, that it has not been occurring prior in any Gloucester Township school,” Harkins told reporters. “We are backtracking now to see where [Mahley] may have gone.”

The mirrors were found just one day after classes resumed, the Courier-Post reports.

“The district has been instructed, due to the ongoing nature of this investigation, not to comment further at this time,” Gloucester Township Public Schools Superintendent John Bilodeau said in a statement.

Mahley, who was charged with invasion of privacy, as well as manufacturing and possession of child pornography, remained held without bail Friday at Camden County Jail. He’s due to appear in court on Sept. 15, records show. It’s unclear if he’s hired an attorney.