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Public Safety

Feds Seek Any Further Victims Of Teacher Convicted of Child Sex Exploitation

Paul Torres Jimenez De La Cuesta in an undated photo.
Homeland Security Investigations
Paul Torres Jimenez De La Cuesta in an undated photo.

Federal authorities put out a call Wednesday asking any previously unidentified victims of a former San Diego-area preschool teacher convicted of child exploitation to call investigators.

Paul Torres Jimenez De La Cuesta, 29, pleaded guilty April 5 to the distribution of images of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

Last June, investigators with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations discovered that Torres, an Imperial Beach resident, was trading child sex abuse materials via online chat groups, according to ICE. Special agents arrested Torres at his Poway workplace, My Room to Grow Preschool.

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The suspect previously had been employed either full-time or as a substitute teacher at the following San Diego schools:

• St. David's Episcopal Church & Preschool, 5050 Milton St.;

• Seaside Preschool Beachside Campus, 1201 Turquoise St.;

• Little Sprouts Preschool, 403 Camino Del Rio S.;

• NHA University of Early Learning Bethel Campus Day Care Center, 3085 K St.;

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• NHA Johnson Early Learning Academy Day Care Center, 5760 Luber St.;

• NHA Karen D. Love Head Start Day Care Center, 2060 Drescher St.;

• NHA Stem Institute for Early Learning Day Care Center, 808 W Cedar St.;

• YMCA of San Diego County, 3708 Ruffin Road; and

• San Diego Cooperative Preschool, 4190 Front St.

Torres, who is scheduled to be sentenced on June 28, also has worked at Concordia Church & School on Discovery Falls Drive in Chula Vista and Soroptimist International of the Americas in Tijuana.

Any outstanding potential victims are asked to call Homeland Security Investigations at 760-901-1004.

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