Heather Bycroft: Oklahoma teacher filmed while husband molested 6-yr-old girl in pool
BROKEN ARROW, OKLAHOMA: A woman was arrested by the FBI on Wednesday, September 22, after she and her husband were accused of making child pornography videos.
A Broken Arrow police detective was made aware of child pornography on Jason Bycroft's Dropbox account. Multiple children were seen performing sex acts on his account after officers acquired an affidavit to investigate the same. They also found that the female voice heard in some of the videos was that of the suspect's wife Heather Bycroft, a first-grade teacher at Bixby East Elementary & Intermediate School who is said to be holding the camera.
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According to CrimeOnline, the affidavit focuses on a string of videos from the fourth of July in 2015. Authorities said the videos show Jason holding up a six-year-old girl in the pool while repeatedly trying to expose her to Heather's camera, who zooms in on the perverted act. “The manipulation of the juvenile’s shorts is overt, intentional, and not an accident," the FBI said in a statement. "This is evidenced by the defendant attempting to capture this numerous times over the three videos.”
The FBI found several more videos, parts of which showed Heather's face. Some of them apparently showed her trying to record up women's skirts. “To learn that a Bixby teacher entrusted with the safety and well-being of children may have been involved in conduct as abhorrent as what has been alleged is highly disturbing,” the school district said in a statement. "We strongly condemn any actions on the part of an adult which endangers the mental or physical health of a child."
Heather Bycroft was immediately suspended following her arrest on child pornography charges, Bixby Public Schools Superintendent Rob Miller said in a statement on Friday, September 24. Speaking to KJRH, District Attorney Jack Thorp said they had filed first-degree rape charges against Jason Bycroft in 2016 in Cherokee County. At the time, the victim was reportedly related to Heather Bycroft, who was said to be in the residence when the incident took place. According to Thorp, they could not press charges against Heather at the time because they lacked probable cause.
However, Jason Bycroft was charged in Wagoner County on Friday with lewd molestation of a child. The 2016 first-degree rape charge against him in Cherokee County remains pending, and he's also facing federal child pornography charges. “This new charge is based on activity that occurred actually before the Cherokee County case,” Thorp, who is the DA for both Cherokee and Wagoner counties, explained to WJRH.
BREAKING: A Bixby 1st grade teacher is arrested on child porn charges.
— Shannon Rousseau (@shannonrousseau) September 23, 2021
Federal authorities have arrested Heather Bycroft.
Bixby Public Schools says no Bixby students were involved. | @NewsOn6
Thorp noted that their efforts to hold the Bycrofts accountable were further complicated after the May 2020 Supreme Court case of McGirt vs Oklahoma, which ruled that only the federal court system and tribal courts could prosecute Native Americans for alleged crimes on Native land, which accounts for a sizeable portion of eastern Oklahoma, according to CrimeOnline.
Thorp told KTUL that due to the Supreme Court precedent, the federal government — and not his office — will take on the 2016 rape case as the victim is Native American. On the other hand, Thorp said they can prosecute Jason Bycroft in the Wagoner County case considering he and the victim are not Native American. At the same time, their office cannot prosecute his wife because she's Native American.
That said, the Bycrofts are currently out of jail on bond following their arrests.