Sailor sentenced to 10 months for videos of female officers

MAYPORT NAVAL STATION, Fla. (AP) – A submarine sailor pleaded guilty Monday to illegally videotaping female officers in the vessel’s shower area and was sentenced to 10 months in a Navy brig.

Petty Officer 2nd Class Ryan Secrest also received a bad conduct discharge and a reduction in rank.

Secrest, a missile technician, is among seven sailors who served aboard the USS Wyoming out of Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base who are charged in the case. The video scandal has disrupted the Navy’s integration of women into its submarine force.

Navy prosecutors say the men waited until the officers were done working out in the ship’s gym, and then secretly made recordings of them in the shower area.

The men then traded the videos “like Pokemon” cards for items like energy drinks, prosecutors said.

The women in the videos were among the first to serve on subs. They all had promising military careers that were disrupted and derailed by the incident, the victims said in previous testimony.

Military prosecutors said Secrest in 2014 used the camera on his cellphone to take a video of the officers. They also said he lied to investigators about the incident afterward.

Secrest declined to comment on the case through his defense attorney, Lt. Clay Bridges.

So far, four other sailors involved in the case have been found guilty. One was found not guilty.