Ex-coach gets 5 years in US prison for duping women in nude photo scheme
Reuters
Published Mar 06, 2024 02:34PM ET
By Nate Raymond
BOSTON (Reuters) - A former Northeastern University track-and-field coach was sentenced on Wednesday to five years in prison for engaging in a series of schemes to dupe young women at the school and elsewhere into sending him nude photos or steal such images from them.
Steve Waithe, 31, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Patti Saris in Boston after pleading guilty in November to fraud and cyberstalking charges related to a vast exploitation scheme that prosecutors say he perpetrated against 56 women nationally.
Prosecutors had requested seven years in prison. Waithe's attorney did not respond to a request for comment, but in a letter Waithe sent the judge ahead of sentencing, the Chicago resident said he was "filled with nothing but remorse."
Waithe worked at Northeastern in Boston from October 2018 to February 2019, when the university fired him. He previously coached at Penn State University, Illinois Institute of Technology, University of Tennessee and Concordia University Chicago.
Prosecutors said that while at Northeastern, Waithe asked female athletes if he could use their cellphones to take video of them during practices and meets, and would then covertly look for photos of the women that he sent to himself.
After leaving Northeastern, Waithe contacted six athletes using Instagram accounts with names like "privacyprotecter" saying he had found compromising photos of them online and wanted to "help" remove them from the internet, prosecutors said.
They said Waithe sent the women nude or semi-nude photos he had stolen and requested they send additional ones so he could conduct "reverse image searches."
None provided photos. But, with the help of hackers, Waithe tried to access 68 women's Snapchat accounts and successfully over a dozen times stole images or videos, including of a Northeastern athlete he cyberstalked, prosecutors said.
Under aliases, Waithe also emailed women in various U.S. states for a phony "body development" study and requested photos of them in a "uniform or bathing suit to show as much skin as possible," prosecutors said. They said at least 36 women sent him over 400 photos.
Get The News You Want
Written By: Reuters
Trading in financial instruments and/or cryptocurrencies involves high risks including the risk of losing some, or all, of your investment amount, and may not be suitable for all investors. Prices of cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile and may be affected by external factors such as financial, regulatory or political events. Trading on margin increases the financial risks.
Before deciding to trade in financial instrument or cryptocurrencies you should be fully informed of the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, carefully consider your investment objectives, level of experience, and risk appetite, and seek professional advice where needed.
Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. The data and prices on the website are not necessarily provided by any market or exchange, but may be provided by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual price at any given market, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Fusion Media and any provider of the data contained in this website will not accept liability for any loss or damage as a result of your trading, or your reliance on the information contained within this website.
It is prohibited to use, store, reproduce, display, modify, transmit or distribute the data contained in this website without the explicit prior written permission of Fusion Media and/or the data provider. All intellectual property rights are reserved by the providers and/or the exchange providing the data contained in this website.
Fusion Media may be compensated by the advertisers that appear on the website, based on your interaction with the advertisements or advertisers.