Voyeur avoids jail over spycams in changing rooms at Butlin’s

A VOYEUR hacked into webcams to record people in their homes and used hidden devices to watch families at Butlin’s, a court heard.

John Wood, 42, used surveillance software to accumulate 1,400 clips of people in their properties and having sex, as well as making 300 of his own videos capturing people in private places. The father of one positioned some of the cameras in the changing rooms at Butlin’s in Bognor Regis, West Sussex, Swindon Crown Court heard.

The illicit material was discovered during an investigation by a cyber crime unit into prominent video hacker Colton Grubbs, from whom Wood had purchased software. The clips were made between 2011 and 2016, and were linked to 45 different IP addresses.

Wood, formerly of Minety, Wiltshire, pleaded guilty to six counts of voyeurism and two charges under the Computer Misuse Act.

Judge Peter Crabtree handed him a two-year prison sentence suspended for two years, for what he described as a “systematic campaign of voyeurism over a period of six years”.

Nicholas Wragg, defending, said Wood had been diagnosed with various mental disorders including autism, hoarding disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder.

“The defendant’s understanding of the harm he has done to others has not been done on an emotional level, because he lacks that capacity,” he said.

“It has been on a purely intellectual level that he had come to learn of that impact on others.”

Wood must complete the Horizon sex offender rehabilitation programme, 30 rehabilitation activity days and 100 hours of unpaid work. He must also abide by a 10-year sexual harm prevention order and his name will remain on the sex offenders’ register for 10 years.

The judge warned Wood that if he breached the terms of his suspended sentence, then he would be jailed.

In statements read to the court, Wood’s victims said they felt “vulnerable and violated” and “absolutely shocked and disgusted”.