A Co Down teenager who tried to secretly film his fiancee's mother taking a bath has been given a two year probation order.
As well as the probation term, Thomas Jason Patrick Edgar (19) from Park Head in Portaferry was ordered to sign the police sex offenders register for five years.
Imposing the orders at Newtownards Magistrates Court, District Judge Mark Hamill told Edgar "that's how we will protect other victims like this lady in the bath."
At the end of his trial last month Edgar, from Park Head in the harbour town, was convicted of a count of attempted voyeurism in that “for the purpose of sexual gratification, he attempted to record another person doing a private act knowing that the other person did not consent to being recorded for sexual gratification”.
Judge Hamill said he could remember what was described as the "mother-in-law in the bath case" but for the public record, a prosecuting lawyer described how the woman, who has waived her right anonymity, noticed that he was in the habit of leaving his phone in the bathroom but "thought nothing more than he was untidy".
On November 21st last year, however, she spotted his mobile phone hidden in a slipper when she went to the toilet and noticed it was “glowing”. She picked it up believing there was a phone call, but it was recording.
‘Fairy story’
“Despite her concerns she left and sought advice from friends,” said the lawyer adding that when she returned, she told Edgar and her daughter “she was going to take a bath”.
With Edgar “becoming agitated,” the lady went to run her bath but as it filled up, “he asked if he could ‘nip in’ to use the toilet”. The lawyer said when the woman went back into the bathroom, “his iPad was against the wall” and, suspecting it was also set to record, she confronted Edgar.
He claimed he was “trying to play a joke” and the court heard how the video he had recorded showed him setting up the camera and then leaving the bathroom with it “clearly in situ”.
Arrested and interviewed Edgar claimed he had been trying to record his then girlfriend as a “practical joke rather than anything more sinister”.
Giving evidence, Edgar repeated that claim, and further claimed that after his phone was spotted, he had asked the woman to give him a lift into town to buy juice in the hope that her daughter would take the bath instead.
On Thursday, Judge Hamill said the trial had been “a ludicrous contest from start to finish”.
Labelling Edgar’s claims as a “fairy story,” the judge said his difficulty was that despite repeating his claims to probation, they were recommending a nine month period of rehabilitation.
“I don’t understand why I should even contemplate probation,” said Judge Hamill. “Probation is for someone who acknowledges that they have a problem, to deal with the problem but he is someone who does even acknowledge that he has a problem.”
‘Stupid and wrong’
He also lamented the fact that the PBNI had suggested a nine month order which would not trigger any obligation for Edgar to sign the sex offenders register, saying such a sentence was “simply inconceivable”.
Defence barrister Chris Holmes, who confirmed that Edgar and his victims daughter were still together, said despite his fairytale stories, his client had "always accepted that his behaviour was foolish, stupid and wrong".
After Edgar agreed to be put on probation, Judge Hamill made it part of the order that he must comply with any recommended programmes of work and must live in probation approved accommodation.
Speaking outside the court, his victim said while she was “happy enough” with the sentence and the protections which had been put in place, her family had been totally split.
Revealing that her daughter and Edgar got engaged the day after he was convicted of attempted voyeurism, she said his actions “have broke a whole family apart.”
“What worries me is that he admitted doing this for near a year and my young son and his mates would use that bathroom so God only knows what he has on video, that’s what scares me,” said the woman.
“I treated him like a son, took him in and even got him a job ... but he’s thrown all that back in my face.”