The former principal of a northeast Iowa elementary school will spend 30 years in a federal prison on child pornography charges. Forty-three-year-old Robert Burke was the principal at Sageville Elementary School in Dubuque.
He pled guilty to secretly videotaping students in the boys’ bathroom at the school. Burke admits he installed hidden cameras to record video from January through early June of this year. Burke was caught through an F-B-I sting. An agent in D.C. found some of the images, which were traced to a computer in Burke’s Dubuque home.
Burke told investigators he did not touch children “in a sexual manner” and a statement from the U.S. attorney’s office indicates “the government has gathered no evidence to contradict Burke’s claim” and a “forensic examination” of Burke’s computer found no evidence he had shared the videos with anyone else.
There is no parole in the federal system, so Burke will be 73 when he is eligible for release in 30 years.