Man arrested after camera found in teenage girl’s bedroom
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IDAHO FALLS — A man has been arrested after a camera was found in a 13-year-old girl’s room.
Eric Kidman, 23, allegedly placed a camera in the teen’s room. After the victim found the camera and police were notified, Kidman became suicidal and confessed to authorities while in the hospital, according to court records.
The incident occurred on June 17. According to court documents, the 13-year-old victim was tending a small potted plant in her room when she discovered a small, one-inch square silver camera that she knew hadn’t been there earlier in the day.
When she showed the camera to Kidman and his spouse, the victim told investigators Kidman removed the memory card and told her that the camera was probably nothing and that she should just throw it away. Kidman’s spouse told the girl to show it to her parents, who then notified authorities.
When officers questioned Kidman about the whereabouts of the memory card, he told them that he lost it. He said he put it on his nightstand while trying to get his infant child to sleep. He said when he went back to get it, he couldn’t find it. Officers searched the room but were unable to locate the memory card.
According to court documents, the Idaho Falls Police Department received a call the next day that Kidman was at Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center and was requesting to speak to law enforcement.
Kidman told officers he wanted to tell them everything about the “dumb decision” he made the previous night.
He told officers he placed the camera in the plant to spy on the victim. He said he was trying to record the victim without her clothes following a shower.
According to documents, he said the victim’s family figured out he was responsible for the camera and didn’t want anything to do with him now. After that, he became suicidal and attempted to purchase a firearm but was unable to make the purchase. He then called the police for help.
Kidman told police jail was preferable to facing the victim or her family.
Kidman told officers he broke the memory card in two and had thrown it in the trash. Later, investigators were able to locate one half of the card.
He also told officers this was his first time doing anything like this. However, after a tip from the family to search his computer, investigators found an explicit video of the victim in her room. The camera appeared to be on a shelf with the girl’s stuffed animals, not in the potted plant.
His wife told investigators she had discovered some disturbing things in Kidman’s internet search history. According to documents, investigators found “7 ways cops will bust you on the dark web,” “bathroom spy cam landlord escapes jail term,” “sentence for spying in bathroom,” and “top 10 common ways to commit suicide.”
They noted the search history had been deleted not long before those searches were made. The computer and other electronic devices were turned over to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for forensic examination.
Kidman reportedly told officers that he had never touched the victim, but had always found her very pretty.
Kidman was charged with sexual abuse of a child by making a photographic or electronic record of a minor. He is in the Bonneville County Jail on a $15,000 bond.
A hearing to set a no-contact order is scheduled for June 27, and a preliminary hearing is scheduled for July 3.
Police are asking the public to contact Idaho Falls Public Safety Dispatch at (208) 529-1200 if they have concern that Kidman may have had contact with other children and could have taken other recordings or photographs.