BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — The U.S. Attorney's Office announced a former City Honors teacher has pleaded guilty to child pornography charges.
62-year-old Peter Hingston of Amherst pleaded guilty to two counts of possessing child pornography. Each count carries a maximum of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Hingston, a former middle school technology teacher at City Honors, was accused of using a camera to secretly record students in a sexually inappropriate way. He was arrested in 2019.
Officials say on June 17, 2019 Buffalo police were called to City Honors after it was alleged that Hingston was using a GoPro camera to take inappropriate photographs of female students.
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office a search of the camera led to the discovery of child pornography videos produced by Hingston involving minors who were under his custody, care and supervisory control when the sexually explicit images were produced. An external hard drive was also searched and contained additional child pornography videos produced by Hingston.
Hingston is scheduled to be sentenced October 21.
The Buffalo Public School District released the following statement when Hingston was arrested in 2019:
On June 17th, 2019, a student of City Honors School (CHS) reported to an assistant principal that a technology teacher was surreptitiously taking pictures of them in class, which made the student uncomfortable.
The assistant principal informed the principal, who then contacted 911, and notified Buffalo Public Schools’ Human Resources Office (HR). HR immediately placed the teacher on administrative leave. The District has been cooperating with local law enforcement and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the investigation of this matter.
Today, the FBI informed the District that they have made an arrest of the teacher, Peter Hingston, for charges including sexual exploitation, attempted sexual exploitation, and material that may involve child pornography. Parents of CHS have been informed about who to contact at the FBI if they believe their child may be a victim. Additional crisis counselors will also be available at the school for the next several days.
It is inexcusable for any staff to endanger or harm children in any way. The uncompromised safety of our students is always our first priority.
