Leeds pervert secretly filmed step daughter in the bath, court is told

The 62-year-old from the Leeds area, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the victim, was caught when the youngster noticed his mobile phone behind the u-bend with its recording light switched on.

Having said she was going for a bath, he had told her he quickly needed to use the bathroom, which is when it was thought he put the phone in position and began recording, prosecutor Jeremy Hill-Baker told Leeds Crown Court.

After picking up the mobile, she checked it and found it contained a video of the defendant setting up the camera.

The horrified girl then told her mother who confronted him, but he tried to quickly delete the footage.

She snatched the phone from him and was able to restore the footage from the recycle bin, and ordered him to leave.

The next day the mother reported him missing to police after he failed to show up for work, and told them what had happened the previous night.

He then turned up at hospital with wounds to his wrists and saying he had taken an overdose, telling them: “It’s all gone, I have lost everything.”

The phone was examined further and a second video of the girl in the bathroom was found that had been recorded the previous week.

Held on remand in HMP Leeds since his arrest last month, he admitted two counts of voyeurism and making indecent images.

Mitigating, Jo Shepherd told the court: “He has made full admissions and he was open and honest in interview and did not seek to minimise his offending.

"He expresses genuine remorse.”

She said he had since been left homeless and lost his job.

Judge Simon Phillips QC told him: “This involved a significant degree of planning, you were targeting a vulnerable child and you attempted to dispose of incriminating evidence.

"You had deliberately set your mobile phone to record.

“It was for you own sexual gratification.”

He handed him six months’ jail, suspended for 18 months, and a five-year sexual harm prevention order to limit his digital device use.

He was also put on the sex offenders register for seven years, and ordered to carry out 60 hours’ unpaid work.