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Ice skating coach sentenced to 3 years probation for child porn possession

A figure-skating instructor who videotaped a 12-year-old female ice skater taking a shower in his San Marcos home in 2007 is scheduled to be sentenced in a Vista courtroom Tuesday.

VISTA (CNS) - A figure-skating instructor who videotaped a 12-year-old female ice skater taking a shower in his San Marcos home in 2007 was sentenced Tuesday to three years probation and ordered to register as a sex offender.

Marc Romain Mandina, 41, pleaded guilty in May to possession of child pornography.

As part of his sentence, Vista Judge Kimberlee Lagotta suspended a one-year county jail term for Mandina as long as he successfully completes probation. The defendant was also ordered not to coach minors and to have no contact with children.

Prosecutor Keith Watanabe said the victim's family was supportive of the settlement and did not want the case to proceed to a preliminary hearing.

Mandina was taken into custody Jan. 28 in Leominster, Mass., a small city outside Boston, after the San Diego County Sheriff's Department issued a warrant for his arrest.

The former national champion from France taught ice skating at several San Diego rinks before relocating to the Boston area, where he continued as an instructor, Watanabe said.

The prosecutor said Mandina's wife found the videotape last year, confronted him and contacted authorities.

Mandina and the girl's father had been good friends for years, Watanabe said.

Mandina admitted to the girl's father in a text message that he had taken the video for "personal use," according to sheriff's officials.

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