Girl Molested on Videotape ID’d

Through dozens of calls from concerned parents, Orange County sheriff’s detectives said Tuesday, authorities have identified at least two of the young girls -- one of them 8 months old -- allegedly molested by a Rancho Santa Margarita couple.

Investigators said they fielded 30 to 40 calls after announcing that David Shouthy Hwang and his wife, Sheila Marie Sikat, had been arrested on suspicion of videotaping sex acts with young girls. Most of the callers were neighbors and co-workers who feared that their children had come into contact with the couple, said sheriff’s spokesman Jim Amormino.

One tipster, identified only as an acquaintance of the defendants, helped authorities identify a 4-year-old Orange County girl in one of the videotapes. Her parents have been informed, Amormino said.

A caller from Laredo, Texas, where Hwang used to live, told investigators of the alleged molestation of the girl who was 8 months old. Previously, the youngest victim was believed to have been 3, Amormino said.

Details about how the couple may have come into contact with the girls were not released, Amormino said, to protect the investigation. He clarified earlier reports that said most of the girls on the tapes viewed so far were Asian, saying Tuesday that girls of all races may also have been victimized. He encouraged anyone with information to come forward.

Hwang, 31, and Sikat, 23, were arrested last week after a search of their home turned up more than 100 homemade videotapes in a green wooden trunk that investigators called a “little chest of horrors.”

About a dozen investigators have been assigned to view the videotapes. As of Tuesday afternoon, they had watched about 40, some three hours long, Amormino said. Investigators have distinguished as many as eight victims so far, he said. The tapes cover a span of between eight and 10 years.

“Investigators fear there will be more victims,” Amormino said.

Authorities would not say whether they have found a videotape of the infant being molested.

But Amormino said there is “substantial evidence that corroborates the tip.”

Hwang is being held without bail at Central Men’s Jail in Santa Ana on 21 counts of lewd acts upon a child and an additional count of recording minors engaged in sex acts.

Sikat faces four counts of lewd acts upon a child and an additional count of recording minors engaged in sex acts and has been released after posting $150,000 bond.

One of Hwang’s relatives was stunned Tuesday when asked about the arrests. The relative said Hwang’s parents did not know that he was in custody.

“Are you serious? This is really shocking. Horrendous. I can’t believe this. This is absurd. I’m speechless,” said the family member.

Hwang never showed any indication of a sexual obsession with young children, the relative said, and lived a relatively normal life. Hwang was raised in Southern California and Texas.

The relative said Hwang worked at his family’s restaurant, Ming Dynasty, in Laredo, Texas, to help pay his way through Texas A&M; in College Station, where he majored in computer science.

After graduation, the family member said, Hwang came to California to find work and lived at first with his uncle and aunt in Laguna Niguel. He landed a job at Pacific Life Insurance Co. in Newport Beach, the same company where his uncle and future wife worked.

Hwang and Sikat were married this summer. A photo of the happy couple, posing in front of crashing waves at Corona del Mar State Beach, is posted on the relative’s Web site.

In the neighborhood where the couple lived, families were still reeling from the news Tuesday morning.

Mothers clutched their children tight and talked about their fears. For many, this has been a tough learning experience.

“This goes to show no matter how safe you think your neighborhood is, no one is exempt from educating their children about safety,” said Cathy Adams, who lives directly behind the couple’s home.

“You never know what’s going on in your own backyard.”

After dropping off her first-grader at Tijeras Creek Elementary School -- just two blocks from Hwang and Sikat’s house -- Zennie Luongo said she could see how such a family-oriented neighborhood could attract potential molesters. She said she plans to do a computer search under Megan’s Law for registered sex offenders living in the area.

“You just can’t be too careful,” Luongo said.

“If someone is attracted to children, what better place for them to live than a place like this?”