Businessman gets prison time for voyeurism, possession of child porn

In an incredibly emotional sentencing hearing, the Las Cruces businessman accused of secretly recording children told the judge he never meant to harm any of his victims.

“I’m so sorry for everybody that’s been involved in this case,” Paul Ikard told Judge Conrad Perea. “I appreciate that we have a system of justice that’s not perfect, I know.”

Ikard was convicted on two counts of voyeurism and child pornography to four-and-a-half years in prison, with credit for time already served. Prosecutors said he had two children as victims and two adults.

“Being the mother of a victim of a crime has been the most challenging, emotional, consuming and stressful period of my life,” said the mother of the two children, who she said are now teenagers.

ABC-7 chose not to not identify the parents, so as to protect the identity of the victims.

“No parent ever wants their children to be victims of a crime, especially something so deranged in nature,” she said. “It’s a mother’s worst nightmare. I was mortified in disgust. I wondered why would anyone do this.”

The father of one of Ikard’s adult victims also begged that Judge Perea give Ikard the maximum sentence.

“I feel that he has ruined her, because she’s afraid to go anywhere,” that father said. “She’s always looking around, looking at her back, looking for hidden cameras everywhere. Any father, to see his or her son or daughter in pain, is just overwhelming.”

Ikard was arrested by Las Cruces police in May 2016, accused of secretly recording children in his bathroom.

According to prosecutors, Ikard allegedly sent a hard drive to an Ohio company to ask if they could recover some files. That company then found child pornography and alerted the FBI, police said. Federal authorities referred the case back to Las Cruces Police.

According to court records, police searched Ikard’s home and found a video camera with a Velcro and “a matching piece of Velcro” hidden in his bathroom.

On October 17th, a Las Cruces jury found him guilty of two counts of voyeurism and one count of possession of child pornography.

“The children in this particular case were so easy to victimize,” said James Dickens in October, the Chief Deputy District Attorney for New Mexico’s 12th Judicial District. “They really felt like they didn’t have a voice.”

“Being the mother of a victim of a crime has been the most challenging, emotional, consuming and stressful period of my life,” the mother of the victims told the court during Monday’s sentencing. “No parent ever wants their children to be victims of a crime, especially something so deranged in nature. It’s a mother’s worst nightmare. I was mortified in disgust. I wondered why would anyone do this.”