Aiden Peel 27

Description

He used an app to secretly film another woman in a bathroom but his partner found out

A shocked girlfriend discovered a disgusting toilet video of another woman that her pervert boyfriend filmed on his phone.

Aiden Peel downloaded a Secret Camera Recorder app before placing his mobile in a bathroom to capture an unsuspecting victim.

The 24-year-old recorded the woman going to the toilet, undressing until she was naked to take a shower, then towelling herself dry.

But the sick voyeur also inadvertently filmed himself setting up the covert device on a sink and returning afterwards to collect it.

Peel later claimed that he downloaded the app after being "inspired" by a YouTube video and thinking it would be good for "pranks".

However, he kept the footage for five or six weeks, until it was "discovered by chance" by his girlfriend after he had been on a night out.

Peel, of Mersey Road, Aigburth, was found guilty of voyeurism after a trial at Liverpool Crown Court in April this year.

During the trial, the jury heard Peel was "heavily intoxicated" after the night out and his now ex-partner said she hadn't ever seen him like that before.

The judge, Recorder Ian Unsworth, QC, today said: "He couldn't speak, he was crawling on the floor and she was concerned as to what he had consumed.

"She therefore wanted to speak to his friends to see who he had been out with. Of course, as the jury heard, there was other activity on his phone, which was concerning enough for her, but of course I don't sentence the defendant for that."

His ex told the jury she discovered upsetting information, but then also came across the app, which attracted her attention and had taken one video.

When she realised it was a secret recording of the victim she became "confused, upset and clearly distressed" and rang a friend to tell her what had happened, before deciding to call police.

Recorder Unsworth said officers spoke to the girlfriend and the victim herself, before Peel, who had no previous convictions, was arrested and interviewed.

The judge said: "He maintained throughout the trial and as he maintains now in the pre-sentence report that was a prank that had gone wrong."

He added: "That assertion was rejected by the jury.

"This is from these facts a serious case, an alarming one but also an unusual one."

The court heard the app used the front-facing camera of his phone but the screen was blank, so to anyone present the device would have appeared inactive while it recorded the 16-minute clip.

Stella Hayden, prosecuting, said the woman Peel filmed didn't want to have her victim personal statement read out in court.

Recorder Unsworth said: "It appears to have had a profound effect upon her."

Ms Hayden said it involved a significant degree of planning, as shown by him downloading the app, which wasn't available on Google Play and had to be sought out online.

The court heard there was no evidence the video had been ever shared with anyone else, or that anyone else had ever seen it.

David Polglase, defending, said: "There is no evidence of what would otherwise be a grave aggravating feature of distribution and dissemination onwards."

He said his client was still "very young" and the Probation Service said it was willing to work with him on his "lack of insight, distorted thinking and behaviour".

Mr Polglase said Peel lived with a new partner's grandparents and the judge could see what "he does for them and what he does for his own parents".

He said Peel was due to become a dad "very shortly" and "there would be an impact on those other people if he were to go to custody".

The lawyer said Peel would be unable to care for his pregnant girlfriend and their unborn child, while his job would also be at risk.

He urged the judge to spare him jail so that he could undergo rehabilitation.

Recorder Unsworth agreed there was no evidence the clip was shared.

However, he said: "But for this accidental finding it isn't clear as to when that material would ever have been deleted.

"Mr Peel's assertion at trial that he had simply forgotten that the material was there is something that I am unable to accept."

The judge said there was "a significant degree of planning".

He said: "In terms of his remorse, it isn't easy to discern given the defendant's stance.

"He's clearly sorry as he expressed to the jury that the victim was captured in the way that she was, that as much appears to be genuine, but he of course still maintains his innocence."

Recorder Unsworth said Peel was assessed as a "medium risk of harm" and his lawyer invited him to consider there was a realistic prospect of rehabilitation and the impact on others.

He said: "In my view this was a gross invasion of the privacy of the victim."

The judge added: "In my judgement this was a cunning, deliberate and pre planned act.

"But for the accidental discovery of this material there is no indication as to when that video would ever have been deleted.

"I reject your assertion that you had forgotten about it and by the very nature of the jury's verdict, you did obtain that for your own sexual gratification."

Recorder Unsworth jailed Peel for nine months, made a five-year restraining order to protect his victim, and told him to sign on the Sex Offenders Register for 10 years.

Peel turned to his new girlfriend and family as he was sent down and said: "I love you."