Man jailed 18 months for peeping, filming women

A peeping Tom here will be looking through a jailhouse cell window instead of students’ windows for the next 18 months.

Walter Figueiredo, 50, was sentenced Thursday on 10 counts of voyeurism and one count of prowling at night, for a year- long series of encounters in a university student neighbourhood.

“Young women in this community deserve to feel safe,” Ontario Court Justice Eleanor Schnall said in her decision that included three years of probation, orders to stay away from Western University and a mandatory $ 2,100 fine on all his charges.

Seven young women were filmed secretly by Figueiredo in their bedrooms and bathrooms in various stages of undress between Oct. 29, 2013, and Sept. 29, 2014.

Figueiredo was caught after neighbours reported seeing a suspicious- looking man. Police tracked Figueiredo’s movements and watched him deke in and out of backyards. When he was arrested, he had his fly open.

A video camera was seized by police. Although Figueiredo did not have a computer in his south London home, he had 57 pairs of soiled women’s underwear, none belonging to the women he filmed.

Schnall said the women were “shocked and traumatized” and Figueiredo had stolen their sense of security and happy memories of their university experience.

“All the victims describe suffering extreme violation,” Schnall said. Some sought mental- health crisis help and counselling.

Figueiredo, a single man who lived alone and has been employed by the same retailer for 35 years, is off work because of stress.

Schnall noted Figueiredo was close to his mother, who died in 2010. Unable to handle his grief and isolated from others, he turned to watching voyeurism porn. He was assessed as someone who is a high risk to re- offend.

Schnall said Figueiredo “does not have a realistic insight into his sexual conduct” and isn’t sure he wouldn’t do it again.

In June 2013, he was charged with prowling in the same neighbourhood after he was caught with his face and hands up to the window of a young woman’s room. He entered a diversion program and after some community service, was left without a criminal record.

Figueiredo told Schnall he was sorry “for what I done” and said he felt sorry for the women he hurt.

“I’m not asking for forgiveness. I just really apologize, “he said.