Irvine swim instructor accused of sexual relationship with 15-year-old [updated]

Editor’s note: This corrects Todd Robert Sousa’s bail status.

An Irvine swim instructor is scheduled to be arraigned Friday in a Newport Beach courtroom on charges he had sex with his 15-year-old student in his office and car.

Todd Robert Sousa, 36, is charged with 13 counts of felony lewd acts on a child, three counts of unlawful sexual intercourse and two misdemeanor counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

Sousa was part owner and an instructor of Swim Ventures, a swim school in Orange County.

Prosecutors claim that’s where Sousa met his victim, who he allegedly groomed until his relationship with her turned sexual between April and Feb. 18. He is accused of having sex with her in his office, an equipment closet and his car.

On Feb. 18, Sousa allegedly picked up the girl from the Irvine Spectrum with her friend and drove them back to his Swim Ventures office where he gave them alcohol, authorities claim. While the girl’s friend waited outside Sousa’s office, he had sex with her, according to prosecutors.

Sousa was arrested after the girl’s friends told her parents and they called police.

Sousa is out on $100,000 bail and will be arraigned at the Harbor Justice Center. He faces up to 13 years in prison.

[Update: Authorities are looking for more victims. Anyone with information can call Supervising Dist. Atty. Investigator Lou Gutierrez at (714) 347-8794.]

Joseph Serna