Former teacher faces molestation charges

A former Corona del Mar High School teacher is scheduled to be arraigned today on charges he molested two young girls between 1997 and 2001.

Prosecutors said Mathew Macul Fahey, 47, from Aliso Viejo molested an 8-year-old girl who was a relative of his then-live-in girlfriend in 1997 and an 11-year-old girl he met while walking his dog in Laguna Beach in 2001.

Police said Fahey charmed the 11-year-old by saying she was pretty enough to be a model and claiming he was a photographer. After taking photos of her clothed with the girl’s mom present, Fahey then ordered her to disrobe after her mother left them alone, prosecutors said. She told her high school counselor of the incident this month, authorities said.

In the older incident involving the younger girl, Fahey is accused of digitally penetrating her while she, Fahey and Fahey’s girlfriend were in bed watching a movie. The girlfriend did not know what was going on, prosecutors said. The girl told her mother about it five years later, prosecutors said.

Fahey taught at Corona del Mar High School between 2003 and 2004. He was arrested last month in Riverside, where he was a ninth-grade English teacher at Palo Verde High School in Blythe. Police said a search of Fahey’s Laguna Beach home turned up hundreds of photos of graphic child pornography and sexy-lingerie erotica featuring girls appearing to be between infancy and 14.

Fahey is charged with felony counts of lewd acts with minors under 14 and a felony count of possessing child pornography.

He faces a maximum sentence of 16 years and eight months in prison to life and is being held in lieu of $1 million bail.

Anyone with more information or who believes they may have been a victim is encouraged to call Laguna Beach Police Det. Debra Kelso at (949) 497-0371 or Supervising Dist. Atty. Investigator Randy Litwin at (714) 347-8794.

Reporter JOSEPH SERNA may be reached at (714) 966-4619 or at joseph.serna@latimes.com.