Coach recorded child players showering during sleepover at his Florida house, feds say

A youth girls softball coach was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison after he was accused of filming players naked in his home and taking sexually explicit photos, federal officials said.

The parents of a 12-year-old girl in Clay County, Florida, reached out to the sheriff’s office after their daughter told them her softball coach had recorded her in the shower, according to a Sept. 26 news release from the Middle District of Florida’s U.S. Attorney’s Office.

The family was at the coach’s Orange Park home that day for a softball team party in September 2022, according to the release.

The players decided to turn the party into a team sleepover, and the coach, 43-year-old Andrew Lynn Overheul, agreed, federal officials said.

Once the parents left, one of the players was taking a shower in the guest bathroom, so Overheul told the 12-year-old girl she could shower in his master bathroom, according to prosecutors.

While the girl was in the bathroom, she saw a phone had been propped up between two boxes on the counter, its camera facing the shower, federal officials said.

She took a closer look at the phone and saw that it was recording a video, according to prosecutors.

In shock, she immediately grabbed the phone and stopped the recording, then looked at the video, federal officials said.

She saw there was video of her which she deleted, according to the release, and then she called her parents to come pick her up from Overheul’s house.

The child’s parents texted Overheul to tell him they were coming to pick up their daughter and said they would explain why when they got to the house, prosecutors said in the release.

“Hey we talked with the girls. No one is admitting [sic] to playing a joke. The others that were in that bathroom said they saw my phone charging but no other phones,” Overheul texted back in response.

The parents reported the incident to county deputies, who then interviewed Overheul, federal officials said.

Overheul told investigators his phone had been in the bathroom, but it was just charging and that he hadn’t set it up to take video of players in the shower, according to the release.

When investigators searched his phone, they found photos of other players in their swimsuits on the floor of his living room, federal officials said.

They also saw Overheul had downloaded multiple phone applications that “allow a camera to remote shoot with live view imaging of the camera from a smartphone,” according to the release. The apps also allowed data to be deleted from the phone, investigators said.

When investigators searched other electronic devices in his home in November, they found hundreds of photos and videos of underage children that appeared to have been taken without their knowledge, federal officials said.

Overheul was arrested on April 20, 2023, and pleaded guilty to production and attempted production of sexually explicit images and videos of children on June 7, according to the release.

On Sept. 26, Overheul was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison, followed by supervised release for the rest of his life.

“This individual, in a position of trust, mentorship, and oversight over children in our community, abused this position in the most heinous of ways and will be held accountable for his despicable actions,” Homeland Security Investigations Jacksonville Assistant Special Agent in Charge K. Jim Phillips said in the release.

Orange Park is about 15 miles south of Jacksonville.

If you have experienced sexual assault and need someone to talk to, call the National Sexual Assault Hotline for support at 1-800-656-4673 or visit the hotline's online chatroom.

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