A police communications engineer ‘obsessed with voyeurism’ secretly recorded a naked woman and stored photographs of her on hard drives.
50-year-old pervert Anthony Hedges, who is also known as Tony, admitted the sexual offence when he appeared at Salisbury Magistrates’ Court on 22 November.
The Motorola engineer, who up until his conviction held high-level security clearance to work on the West Mercia Police airwave network, returned to the same court for sentencing today (Monday).
Prosecutor Ryan Seneviratne said that a woman – who as the victim of a sexual crime cannot legally be identified – noticed the door to a room she was in slightly ajar.
She saw a mobile phone camera slotted through the opening and shouted “hello” before hearing shuffling outside the room. She put clothing on before going to confront the person.
She found Hedges nearby and repeatedly asked what he was doing. He told her he was not doing anything. The woman then accused him of putting a phone through the door – and he told her to “f**k off”.
Numerous hard drives were later located in the defendant’s office. They contained a collection of photographs taken of the victim in “different states of undress”, Mr Seneviratne added.
In her statement to police, the woman said she felt “angry, violated, threatened, upset, unsafe and lost” as a result of his behaviour.
Richard Griffiths, defending, told the court that Hedges “wished to preserve an image of beauty” and confirmed that there must have been an “element of sexual gratification”.
He added that this client has lost his £50,000-a-year job as a communications engineer for Motorola – working for the emergency services, including running the network for West Mercia Police.
Mr Griffiths said that Hedges’ high-level security clearance was revoked. The defendant, of Okebourne Close, Brentry, Bristol, now lives at home with his mother.
“He wants to say how deeply he regrets and apologies to her for what he did”, he added.
“He had developed an obsession with voyeurism; it’s like an alcoholic – you come to focus on alcohol. [Prison] will absolutely do nothing to address the underlying problem that Mr Hedges has.
“He needs the help that is on offer through the probation service to try and deal with it.”
Magistrate Peter McPherson, chair of the bench, said that the “monstrous” crime was too serious to be sentenced in the magistrates’ court – and referred the case to Salisbury Crown Court.
Hedges, who has no previous convictions, was released on conditional bail in time for Christmas – and will be sentenced in early 2023.
The victim in this case has the lifelong right to anonymity. It is an imprisonable criminal offence to share any piece of information that could lead to the identification of the victim.
