A pervert care worker who secretly recorded an indecent video of a woman has been ordered to register as a sex offender.
The defendant, who can’t be named to protect the identity of his victim, appeared before Swindon Magistrates’ Court after pleading guilty to a single count of voyeurism.
The bench heard how the man, in his 30s, committed the offence at a Chippenham care home in December 2020 by recording a female colleague doing a private act without her consent, for the purpose of obtaining sexual gratification.
Defence solicitor Charlotte Frizzell said her client was “very disgusted” by his behaviour.
“He clearly needs some intervention, he clearly needs some assistance in relation to understanding boundaries – specifically sexual boundaries in relation to female colleagues in the future”, she told the court.
She continued: “He has suffered quite significantly in relation to this offence that he committed already.
“You have heard that he was suspended and he’s lost his job. At the moment he isn’t working and his wife is the breadwinner.”
Referring to a reference provided by his wife, Ms Frizzell said: “He had explained to his wife, and it is very clear in the letter that she’s written, they’ve obviously got a lot of work to do on their relationship.
“One thing that has come out of it is they are both opening up a lot more with each other now and hopefully will continue to in the future. They are working at their relationship and hopefully it will be a situation where it will not affect their relationship in the future.
“Albeit in these quite unusual circumstances, it may at least bring them closer in certain aspects.”
Ms Frizzell asked the bench to consider a community order rather than a prison sentence due to his previous good character and significant remorse.
Returning to the bench after 15 minutes of deliberations, chairman Alix Smith labelled the offence “very very serious”.
She said: “We went out to consider whether or not this offence was serious enough to send you to custody, and we do consider it to be very very serious.
“However, we are not going to send you to custody – we are going to make a community order.”
He was sentenced to a two-year community order consisting of 40 rehabilitation activity requirement days and 240 hours of unpaid work.
Ms Smith warned the defendant that he faces a prison sentence if he does not comply with his community order.
He was told to attend Chippenham Police Station to register as a sex offender for five years.
