Let-off for stepfather who secretly filmed girl in bath for four years
A stepfAther who secretly filmed his teenage daughter in the bath for four years has walked free from court.
thomas Craig Lewis was caught after his young victim spotted a phone camera above the bathroom door on the eve of her 18th birthday.
Yesterday Lauren Brightwood, now 20, bravely waived her right to anonymity as she told of her fury after Lewis was given a suspended jail sentence.
In a blog to share her experience, the bank worker said: ‘he has been able to move on with his life. he has got a girlfriend, he has got a job, his family pretended like nothing happened and he is not serving any time.’
Northampton Crown Court heard that the 35-year-old had been filming Miss Brightwood since she was 14.
she considered him as a father figure after he married her mother when she was four.
But he had been making up to ten recordings of his stepdaughter between the ages of 14 and 17, claiming he was ‘curious’ about how she looked as an adult. On November 27 2018, the 17- year- old noticed what appeared to be a phone perched in a window above the bathroom door at their home in Northampton. It disappeared then appeared again for about ten seconds before footsteps were heard as Lewis walked away.
prosecutor Ben Gow said the frightened girl texted her mother Michelle from the bathroom to avoid alerting Lewis.
Initially he claimed she had mistaken a vacuum cleaner for the phone, before saying he thought he had heard her crying and was using it to check on her. Lewis later admitted he had made recordings ‘a couple of times’, before confessing to filming her between 2014 and 2018 when interviewed by police.
In a victim impact statement, Miss Brightwood said: ‘I went into a state of shock, I didn’t really know how to process it.’
she said she now suffers from anxiety, depression and has had suicidal thoughts.
Mr Gow said: ‘All [her mother] wanted for her was security but the defendant has taken that away from her.’ On tuesday, Lewis, from Llanelli, Wales, was given a ten-month prison sentence, suspended for 18 months. he was also ordered to undertake 30 days of rehabilitation and 100 hours’ unpaid work.
David singh, defending, said his client had sought professional help after pleading guilty to two counts of voyeurism.
But Judge rebecca Crane said it was clear from a pre-sentence report Lewis had not accepted the reasons behind his actions.
she said: ‘I do not consider you are yet being honest to yourself and everyone else.’