Parents decry Plainville swim team volunteer as ‘monster’ as he is sentenced to 25 years for making secret recordings of girls’ locker room
A Plainville father and adult leader on the town’s popular recreational town swim team was sentenced to 25 years in prison Friday for recording hundreds of pornographic photographs and videos of young women undressing and posting some of the images on a murky part of the Internet known as the Dark Web.
One-time community leader Kyle Fasold’s arrest and prosecution on child pornography charges stunned Plainville and in particular, the close group of families with whom he was involved in the town’s successful youth swimming program. His four-hour-long sentencing hearing in federal court in Hartford was, if possible, just as wrenching.
Eleven speakers, Fasold’s victims and their parents, took turns at a lectern and in voices alternating between rage and terrible sorrow, called him a “monster” who as one speaker said “robbed” children of “their innocence and sense of safety.” Fasold, grievously injured and a paraplegic after three in-prison suicide attempts, watched and listened from across the courtroom, where he was strapped to a hospital gurney.
In imposing the sentence, U.S. District Michael Shea said Fasold’s time in prison is likely to be short and painful as a result of his suicide risk and catastrophic health problems associated with his paralysis. Because of one condition associated with paralysis, Fasold is permitted to sit up for only two hours three times a day.
Federal defender Charles Wilson said Fasold, at the bottom of the prison pecking order as a child pornographer, has been attacked twice so far while awaiting sentencing.
Fasold has admitted secretly recording young women — at least 27 minors and 15 adults — over a 2½-year period with hidden cameras he installed in the girls’ locker room the swim club used at Plainville High School and in a bathroom at his home. He posted images of four of the girls on the dark web, a portion of the internet where pedophiles are known to share pornographic images.
All of Fasold’s victims spoke of what they called his betrayal. He was a leading figure in the swim club and two aspiring young children described him as a father figure. Parents spoke of exchanging hugs with Fasold as they entrusted their children to his care, or dropped their daughters at his home for sleepovers with his children.
One mother said Fasold was “a snake in our midst” who gave parents “hugs and greetings” while he was secretly monitoring secret cameras. Girls, who learned from the FBI that they had been recorded, told of being unable to sleep in hotel rooms, or use public restrooms and locker rooms. Others said they no longer trust men. All said they were seeing therapists.
“What he has taken from our children and from all of us can never be returned,” one mother said,
Another told Fasold, propped up so he could see her from his gurney, that his three suicide attempts were an attempt to escape the consequences of his behavior. Fasold hung himself from a shower head, dove into a stairwell and tried to overdose on pain medication.
“You are a coward in addition to a pedophile,” she said. “You are sick and you make me sick and you deserve the rest of your life in prison.”
Fasold told his victims in a flat, emotionless tone, that he was sorry.
“To all the victims, their families, the community and everybody, I am sorry,” he said. “I wish there was something I could do to help all the people I have hurt, especially the victims of my crimes and their families.
“I know my being sorry probably offers little if anything to you,” he said. “This may be of little or no value, but please know this is not your fault. You have no responsibility for this. If any of you believes you are somehow to blame, you are not. I am sorry for everything including causing you to have that feeling.
“My ex-wife and my children were home with me when I was arrested,” he said. “My life crumbled that morning. It was a false life. It was not real. I hurt many people in creating it, including many people I will never know, people in Plainville, people who watched their kids swim. I am sorry to all of them. I’m especially sorry to my children, and I will carry the same remorse and sorrow so long as I live.”
In a memo to the court, assistant U.S. Attorney Nancy Gifford said Fasold’s crimes were particularly onerous because of how they violated the trust of his friends and neighbors.
“Fasold’s interest in child pornography was not a momentary indiscretion,’” Gifford said. “He surreptitiously recorded minors for years while leading a double life. He played the role of a devoted father while secretly using his children’s events for his own nefarious behavior. He abused the trust of his family and friends and the broader community.”
More than a dozen of Fasold’s victims are suing him and Plainville, claiming the surreptitious recordings have caused them humiliation, emotional trauma, embarrassment and, in some cases, “permanent psychological scarring.”
Fasold was a sales manager with Molnlycke, a medical products manufacturer, and was known as a family man and community volunteer. He has been in federal custody since his arrest, and his wife has divorced him.
