Story highlights A University of Delaware student allegedly hid cameras in restrooms around campus 
 
 Police say they think Javier Mendiola-Soto, 38, hid cameras for more than two years 
 
 An investigation has revealed 1,500 video files, with some 40 victims so far identified 
 
 Police are contacting victims, and the university is offering counseling to anyone affected 
 
 University of Delaware students are being offered counseling after a doctoral student allegedly hid video cameras in restrooms around the university's Newark campus over a two-year period. 
 
 Police were alerted after a hidden camera was discovered in a women's restroom on June 27, the university said. 
 
 An investigation led to the arrest of 38-year-old Javier Mendiola-Soto, a doctoral student from Mexico. Mendiola-Soto has been charged with 21 counts of violation of privacy. His visa has been revoked, and he is in custody. 
 
 Police searching Mendiola-Soto's home found approximately 1,500 computer video files. 
 
 "The analysis concluded that the suspect hid video cameras in other restrooms both on and off campus over a more than two-year period from 2012 until his arrest this month," the university said in a statement. 
 
 "The scope of the recordings continues to be a focus of the investigation, and the police are attempting conclusively to identify all potential recorded locations." 
 
 Recordings have been traced to two restrooms at the Delaware Biotechnology Institute -- where Mendiola-Soto worked -- a unisex bathroom in the building housing the education department, and women's restrooms in a library, memorial hall and laboratory, the university said. 
 
 The investigation has so far identified approximately 40 potential victims. Police are contacting victims, and the university is offering counseling to anyone who requests it in connection with the case. 
 
 "It is extremely disturbing that this crime was perpetrated against our community invading the privacy of so many women on and around this campus," university President Patrick Harker said. 
 
 "We have implemented several actions already, including security sweeps of all restrooms and changing rooms on all campuses, randomly timed examinations of all restrooms by custodial staff and increased police patrols throughout buildings," he said. 
 
 The university's head of campus and public safety, Skip Homiak, said new technology had increased the risk of such crimes. 
 
 "Invasions of privacy crimes are becoming an increasing concern on college campuses and in public areas given the ready access to small and sophisticated spying devices," he said. 
 
 The university said the investigation was being conducted "under strict guidelines and protocols designed to protect the privacy of any individual whose image may have been captured on video." The video evidence is being securely stored and will be destroyed after criminal proceedings end, it said. 
 
 Police say they don't think the images have been uploaded to the Internet or shared. 
 
 People who think they may have been recorded should contact the University Police Department hotline at 302-831-4800. ||||| Buy Photo Memorial Hall on the University of Delaware campus is one of several buildings where cameras were hidden in a women’s bathroom. (Photo: The News Journal)Buy Photo 
 
 Police will not reach out to identify more than the 40 women they have confirmed as having been filmed in restrooms at and near the University of Delaware over a two-year period. 
 
 Story: Arrest follows discovery of hidden cameras in UD restrooms 
 
 While hundreds of women were illicitly recorded, the state attorney general's office believes it now has enough evidence to successfully prosecute the suspect, UD's executive director of campus and public safety, Skip Homiak, said Saturday. 
 
 Homiak said the suspect, former doctoral candidate Javier Mendiola-Soto, has told UD Police he downloaded 1,500 separate videos taken of women using miniature cameras he hid in sanitary napkin dispensers in bathroom stalls on and around campus. But with some of the women having been recorded "three or four times," Homiak said, "hundreds" of victims would be an accurate estimate. 
 
 Mendiola-Soto, 38, is being held at Young Correctional Institution in Wilmington on a $42,000 secured bond; federal immigration authorities have added a detainer that would keep him jailed even if he could make the cash bond, Homiak said. 
 
 Once the case is adjudicated and any sentence served, he said, the "likely outcome" for Mendiola-Soto is deportation back to his home country of Mexico. 
 
 Mendiola-Soto has been expelled from the university, Homiak added. 
 
 Homiak said it's understood that some of the victims – all of whom have been offered counseling – might be reticent to appear in court. 
 
 "We're hoping that, in fact, if they're needed to testify, they will," he said. "We do understand that they've been traumatized. Everything that we are doing at the university is with the utmost sensitivity to the victims. And that's our main concern at the moment." 
 
 While officials won't attempt additional identifications for prosecution purposes, they will allow women who believe they were filmed and want to confirm it to do so. 
 
 "Anybody who thinks they may have been a victim of this, they can call us on the hotline and speak with an investigator," Homiak said. "And if that person wishes, we can compare her known photo with an image that we have taken from the videos." 
 
 To speed the process and add an additional layer of privacy, those images are screenshots of just faces that have been placed in digital folders arranged by location and date, he said. 
 
 Homiak said Mendiola-Soto used just two cameras and moved them over a period stretching from May 2012 through June 2014 amongst restrooms in five locations: the Hugh Morris Library, Memorial Hall, the Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Laboratory, Willard Hall Education Building and a staff-only restroom at the Delaware Biotechnology Institute in the Delaware Technology Park. A woman in the latter location spotted a hidden camera and reported it June 27, Homiak said. 
 
 "Very quickly, the investigation led to the arrest of the defendant after we spoke to witnesses, and other investigative means," Homiak said. Mendiola-Soto, who was arrested July 1, took classes in that building, he said. 
 
 The cameras were at times also mounted in at least two other locations, Homiak said: the Goodwill Store on Main Street in Newark, and a bathroom at his Newark residence. Homiak said Mendiola-Soto's roommates included women. 
 
 On campus, Homiak said, police have searched every restroom – including men's rooms – and locker room. Nothing else was found, he said. 
 
 Homiak said it's unknown how Mendiola-Soto managed to slip in and out of women's restrooms – none of which are accessible 24 hours a day – over a two-year period, apparently without getting seen. 
 
 "That's a good question," Homiak said. "We don't know the answer to that. The cameras had to physically be removed and downloaded each time he placed them in the bathroom." 
 
 Homiak said Mendiola-Soto does not appear to have had an accomplice. "There's nothing at all to indicate that he acted anything other than solo on this," he said. 
 
 A forensic examination by the Middletown Police Department has concluded that none of the videos were electronically shared, Homiak said. 
 
 Contact William H. McMichael at (302) 324-2812 or bmcmichael@delawareonline.com. On Twitter: @billmcmichael 
 
 Contacting UD Police 
 
 Anyone who wants to see if they are on the seized videos can use the UD police hotline at (302) 831-4800; callers can arrange to review the images with a female detective. UDPrivacy@udel.edu is another option. Anyone with information on suspicious activity is asked to contact UD police at (302) 831-2222. 
 
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– Creepy news from the University of Delaware: A former grad student is suspected of having filmed women in bathroom stalls across the campus after he allegedly installed cameras in sanitary napkin dispensers. Hundreds of women were victimized in the case, campus security director Skip Homiak says. The suspect is ex-doctoral candidate Javier Mendiola-Soto, now expelled; he has reportedly acknowledged downloading some 1,500 videos of victims, some of whom were recorded multiple times, Homiak notes. Counseling has been made available to all the victims, he adds, per the News Journal. Mendiola-Soto, 38, only used two cameras, but he moved them all over campus over a two-year period, says Homiak. A woman spotted one of the cameras last month, he notes. The suspect also allegedly put cameras in a Goodwill store and in his own bathroom; he reportedly had female roommates. Mendiola-Soto, of Mexico, has been charged with 21 counts of privacy violation, and he's had his visa revoked, CNN reports. He's likely to be deported to Mexico as a result of prosecution after he's served any sentence, Homiak says.