- At least seven accused pedophiles were featured in the child abuse videos seen by the FBI
- Galleria store employee Arthur Hector Fernandez was arrested in December
- Fellow store employees had entrusted him with the care of their toddlers
Gruesome videos have emerged of a gang of at least seven accused pedophiles sexually abusing toddlers in the restroom of a Texas mall.
Arthur Hector Fernandez, 29, a kiosk worker at the Galleria mall in Houston, is accused of abusing the toddlers and posting the videos online.
According to police, two of Fernandez’s friends sometimes left their children, two 2-year-olds, in his care while they worked at the mall.
The FBI says it launched an investigation last month after the abuse videos posted on a private online forum were shared by the Australian Center to Counter Child Exploitation, as reported by the Star-Telegraph.
Arthur Hector Fernandez, 29, is accused of leading a gang of pedophiles who filmed themselves raping two toddlers in the bathroom of a Texas mall
Each of the four videos shared with authorities reportedly shows a different attack, and they take place in different rooms and locations, including the mall’s bathrooms.
Fernandez is the only suspect in the case so far. It is unclear whether the others reportedly appearing in the video have been identified by officials.
Police surveilled him by searching for the face of one of the children using an open-source image repository and then matching it with social media images shared by one of the women.
When police showed the child’s mother a “sanitized” image from the abuse material, the woman reportedly saw a pair of bracelets belonging to Fernandez.
The police then saw the bracelets on the suspect’s social media.
The attacks are said to have taken place at the Galleria Mall in Houston, where Fernandez worked at a newsstand
In a similar response, FBI agent Torrence White warned parents that predators are often someone they know.
White told ABC13, “The perpetrators of these crimes are family members, teachers and community members. People are often looking for the monster in the white van, but often it’s the person you know.’
Fernandez was arrested in December and remains in federal custody.
Houston’s Galleria is the largest mall in Texas and the seventh largest in the United States.
It opened in 1969 and now contains 400 stores.