Feds seek potential victims of San Diego-area preschool teacher who shared child porn

Federal authorities put out a call Wednesday asking any potential unidentified victims of a former San Diego-area preschool teacher convicted of child exploitation to call investigators.

Paul Torres Jimenez De La Cuesta, 29

(Courtesy of Homeland Security Investigations)

Paul Torres Jimenez De La Cuesta, a 29-year-old who worked or substituted at 12 schools in San Diego County and Tijuana, pleaded guilty April 5 to a federal charge of distribution of images of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

Last June, investigators with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations discovered that Torres, an Imperial Beach resident, was trading child sex-abuse materials via online chat groups, according to ICE.

Special agents arrested Torres at his Poway workplace, My Room to Grow Preschool.

The suspect previously had been employed either full-time or as a substitute teacher at nine schools in the city of San Diego:

• St. David’s Episcopal Church & Preschool, 5050 Milton St.
• Seaside Preschool Beachside Campus, 1201 Turquoise St.
• Little Sprouts Preschool, 403 Camino Del Rio South
• NHA University of Early Learning Bethel Campus Day Care Center, 3085 K St.;
• NHA Johnson Early Learning Academy Day Care Center, 5760 Luber St.;
• NHA Karen D. Love Head Start Day Care Center, 2060 Drescher St.;
• NHA Stem Institute for Early Learning Day Care Center, 808 W Cedar St.;
• YMCA of San Diego County, 3708 Ruffin Road; and
• San Diego Cooperative Preschool, 4190 Front St.

Investigators said he also previously worked at:

• Concordia Church & School on Discovery Falls Drive in Chula Vista
• Soroptimist International of the Americas in Tijuana.

According to a criminal complaint and his plea agreement, the images and video Torres shared last June in an online group chat all depicted preschool-age victims. When an undercover special agent invited Torres into a private chat, he asked the undercover agent for a specific type of child pornography.

Torres is scheduled to be sentenced June 28 in federal court in San Diego.

Any potential victims are asked to call the Oceanside-area office of Homeland Security Investigations at (760) 901-1004.

Staff writer Alex Riggins contributed to this report.

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