A SICK “Peeping Tom” has been jailed for three years for using hidden spy cameras to film women and girls getting undressed in changing rooms and in their own homes.
worker Thomas Milton, 32, also used an bot to create naked photos of underage girls from “innocent” social media posts.
Thomas Milton, 32, was sentenced to three years at Teesside Crown Court on MondayCredit: PA:Press Association
He used hidden spy cameras to film women and girls as young as 14Credit: Refer to source
Milton, from Eston in Redcar, hid a spy camera he had bought off in changing rooms and recorded women and teenage girls, as young as 14, without their knowledge.
He admitted to making indecent pseudo-photographs of children and also filmed two women in their .
Prosecutor Charlie Thompson said Milton, who worked as a school technician, was caught after the camera he set up was found in a changing room.
Milton hid the camera in the changing rooms of a popular venue before a child spotted it inside an air conditioning unit.
He had gone back to the changing room with a view to remove the device but found it had already been taken from its hiding place.
The child handed it to an adult and, later that night, the woman visited a station to report and hand in the camera that had been located, Crown Court heard.
Three days later, Milton revealed to another woman at the venue that he was the one who had put the camera in the changing room.
He made the same comment to another member of staff which led him to attend police station a short time later.
Upon his arrival, he was arrested and questioned by detectives while in custody.
But before handing himself in to police, an investigation had already begun by detectives that led to up to 35 devices being recovered, seized and forensically examined.
When he arrived in custody, he told officers he had placed the camera in the changing room and in the bedroom of a without members of the public or the occupant knowing.
Officers had already begun seizing devices and conducting a search of Milton’s home and reviewed hours of footage that uncovered he had been filming for six years.
As well as the footage, he had also made numerous pseudo images.
A jury rejected his claim he hid the camera for a “thrill” and said it was not for the purpose of sexual gratification and found him guilty of five counts of voyeurism.
And sentencing Judge Richard Bennett said Milton’s claim was “palpable nonsense”.
Teesside Crown Court heard how Milton hid the same camera in a woman’s bedroom twice and on one occasion captured the woman removing all of the clothing on her lower half.
She said: “It doesn’t feel real. I felt sick, violated and utterly disgusted. I still get flashbacks.”
She did not feel safe and it took weeks to return to her own home.
“I was unable to sleep and eat for weeks and became very unwell. I will never forgive him for what he has done,” she added.
Another victim, who was filmed in her own home, said: “I do not feel safe in my own home. Your home should be your safe space.”
She and her partner have decided to move house as a result.
Teesside Crown Court heard how on three separate occasions he harvested “innocent” photographs from of clothed teenage girls and asked AI software to make them naked.
Sentencing Milton, who appeared in court via video link from Home House Prison, Judge Bennett said: “Your full name is Thomas, you were known as Tom. You are the classic peeping Tom who spies on young women and teenage girls for your own sexual gratification.”
He said Milton had shown no remorse and knew what he was doing, adding: “You are clearly highly intelligent but equally manipulative, deviant and dishonest.”
Milton, of Clive Road, Eston, was jailed for three years and made subject to a sexual harm prevention order for the rest of his life, restricting his contact with children and internet and social media use.
Judge Bennett added: “Your use of AI in this offending highlights the real danger of posting innocent images of children on social media which can be manipulated by people who have a sexual interest in children.”
Detective Constable Jonathon Collins said: “From the beginning, Milton has consistently made outrageous claims for why he chose to place cameras in the changing room and in the bedroom of a property to secretly film members of the public, refusing to acknowledge and accept any wrongdoing.
“He has violated the privacy of many people, including young children, spying on them for what I believe is for his own gratification.
“The investigation involved reviewing countless amounts of footage and then in doing so we came across images that Milton had created from the content he had filmed.
“I am pleased a jury could see through his lies and convict him of these offences where he has been rightly sentenced, securing justice for all the victims.”
Eze Chidiebere Paul
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