Police seek more victims

Laguna Beach police are hoping to find more victims of an alleged child molester who is believed to have lured an 11-year-old girl on the promise of a modeling career, and is alleged to have molested girls as young as 8 over many years.

The suspect at one time had a photo studio in Laguna Beach, where he allegedly carried out one of the molestations, according to police.

Mathew Macul Fahey, 47, of Aliso Viejo, was arrested March 12 on two felony counts of lewd acts on a child under 14, an open felony count of possession and control of child pornography, with sentencing enhancement allegations for “substantial sexual conduct with a child” and sexual crimes against more than one victim, according to district attorney spokeswoman Farrah Emami. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of 16 years and four months to life in state prison.

Fahey is scheduled to be arraigned on the charges today, Emami said. He is being held in Orange County Jail on $1 million bail, according to jail records.

At the time of his arrest, the defendant was working as a ninth-grade English teacher in at Palo Verde High School in Blythe in Riverside County. Between 2003 and 2004, the defendant taught at Corona del Mar High School in Newport Beach.

During a search of the suspect’s residence in June, Laguna Beach police detectives allegedly discovered hundreds of images of graphic child pornography and erotica featuring little girls appearing to be between infancy and 14 years old.

Fahey is accused of molesting a then-11-year-old girl he met while walking his dog in Laguna Beach in 2001, after claiming to be a professional photographer and telling the victim she could be a model, according to the district attorney’s office.

Fahey held two photo sessions with the girl while her mother was present, the district attorney’s office stated.

During a photo shoot on Sept. 5, 2001, in his Laguna Beach studio with her mother not present, Fahey allegedly told the victim to remove her clothes, and then allegedly touched and photographed the victim’s vagina, warning her not to tell her mother.

The victim kept the incident a secret until April 2008, when she disclosed it to her high school counselor. The allegations led to an investigation that revealed other victims, according to the district attorney’s office.

The other allegations include an assault on an 8-year-old female relative of the suspect’s then-live-in girlfriend in January or February 1997.

That assault was disclosed in 2002.

An earlier assault is alleged against another 8-year-old female relative of his then-girlfriend, in November 1991, but the statute of limitations has run out on that case, according to the district attorney.

Anyone with additional information or who may have been a victim is urged to contact Laguna Beach Police Det. Debra Kelso at (949) 497-0371, or Supervising District Attorney Investigator Randy Litwin at (714) 347-8794.

CINDY FRAZIER is city editor of the Coastline Pilot. She can be contacted at (949) 380-4321 or [email protected].