WISCASSET, Maine — A bus driver from Bath, accused of taking "upskirt" pictures of female students, was arrested in Texas, but now sits in a Maine jail in Wiscasset.
The Portland Press Herald reports that 52-year-old Timothy McGowan was arrested by sheriffs in Texas after he missed a June court date in Maine.
McGowan pleaded not guilty to vioation of privacy and possession of sexually explicit materials.
In June of 2018, the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security alerted Maine State Police to a tip pointing to the bus driver as the source of pictures on a foreign website featuring school-age students. The investigation was further narrowed to the Bath area through the use of email traces and subpoenas, at which point the Bath Police Dept. joined the case.
RELATED: Former bus driver accused of taking inappropriate underage photos, indicted
RELATED: Police trace invasive photos of Bath students to bus driver
The photographs were taken from an angle to look up the skirts of bus passengers. With the help of staff from the Bath area school district, investigators identified six girls from the pictures spanning the elementary, middle and high schools. School leaders notified parents at the time, a day after police served McGowan with a criminal summons.
Through a search of electric devices belonging to McGowan, police said they uncovered pictures that matched the images on the foreign website. Police said McGowan took the pictures while taking students to and from school and special events.