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Ex-Covina middle school coach sentenced in child porn, sex case

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A Covina middle school teacher who molested adolescent boys and was grooming one of his students to be a victim before he was caught has been sentenced to more than 23 years in federal prison.

John David Boyle, 52, of Glendora, a teacher and athletics coach at Royal Oak Middle School, had been targeting boys for 30 years before his arrest last June, prosecutors said.

He was sentenced to 23-1/2 years in prison.

Boyle was arrested in his classroom on a weekend last year when he met someone who he thought was a fellow pedophile who wanted to watch child pornography and engage in sexual acts.

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But the person was actually a federal agent who arrested Boyle and seized his laptop. Though Boyle was convicted of only four counts of inducing a minor into sex and producing, possessing and distributing child pornography, prosecutors said in court documents that his laptop contained 3,000 pictures and 281 videos of child porn.

“He was certainly bold and I think the court said it best in one word: horrendous,” said Assistant U.S. Atty. of violent and organized crime Nicholas Trutanich. “He’s a sexual predator who used his classroom to further his illicit sexual desires. Not only did he admit to grooming students, but … he was caught in the classroom where he’d invited an undercover agent.”

Boyle had victimized a young male relative and had lured a different boy, 14, through an online chat room before molesting him in a park, prosecutors said.

During the investigation, Boyle boasted to one person online that he had molested as many as 20 boys, Trutanich said.

“There’s no doubt … the children of L.A. are safer because of the sentencing,” Trutanich said.

The earliest Boyle could be released from prison is when he’s 71.

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