Wichita State student who took upskirt videos sentenced to prison for child sex crime

A man who filmed upskirt videos of women while he was a student at Wichita State University has been ordered to spend nearly 5 years in state prison after being convicted of a child sex crime.

James Dayvault, a 30-year-old Wichita man, was sentenced Monday to 57 months in the Kansas Department of Corrections, District Attorney Marc Bennett said in a news release.

Sedgwick County District Court Judge Kevin O’Connor previously found Dayvault guilty of sexual exploitation of a child who was 3 years old, lewd and lascivious behavior and sexually-motivated crimes of breach of privacy and attempted breach of privacy. He was found not guilty of two additional charges of breach of privacy and attempted breach of privacy.

Dayvault is now a registered sex offender for life in the Kansas Bureau of Investigation registry.

An affidavit released in court showed that the investigation started after a neighbor spotted him placing his cellphone inches away from the buttocks of a bikini-clad girl who was playing with her cousin. The children were ages 5 and 7.

After Dayvault’s arrest in 2017, evidence showed his cellphone had been used to view at least 91 images of child pornography. Investigators found several photos and videos of girls and women on his phone and home computer.

WSU officials said the student was found to be in possession of photos and videos taken up women’s skirts. He took pictures of four different women at Ablah Library, East McKnight, Duerksen Fine Arts Center and possibly inside Jabara Hall, a college police department detective said.

He also filmed unsuspecting teens at a Wichita church, attempting to record under a girl’s chorus robe and dress, and a woman in a Towne East Square parking lot. Other footage showed Dayvault exposing his genitals while in public with children playing nearby.