DOCTOR‘S PIED ON CHILDREN AT POOL’
ADOCTOR of psychology used a “spy watch” to secretly film children getting changed in cubicles at Cardiff International Pool.
Joshua Lord, who previously worked at Cardiff University, slipped the covert camera beneath dividing walls in the changing area and recorded the young swimmers undressing.
Speaking at Cardiff Crown Court, defence barrister Hashim Salmman said: “He has achieved academic excellence at all levels.”
The court heard the 29-year-old achieved a PhD in psychology and worked at Cardiff University before moving to a job in statistics.
The offending happened in the changing rooms at Cardiff International Pool in Cardiff Bay on November 9 last year.
John Warren, prosecuting, said a girl raised concerns about the
defendant’s behaviour and matters were reported to the police.
Officers traced him through CCTV and arrested him on January 18 when they seized electrical devices including a laptop and spy watch containing a tiny camera.
The device contained Category C indecent videos of five different children as well as a voyeuristic video of one woman.
Analysis showed all the recordings, lasting up to two minutes and 46 seconds, were made on the same day and involved boys and girls aged between eight and mid-teens.
One video showed a 15-year-old girl taking off her swimming costume, which exposed her chest and genitals. In another clip an eightyear-old boy was filmed as an adult helped him to get changed.
Prosecutors said Lord filmed an 11-year-old girl with her buttocks uncovered as she took off her swimwear.
He made a video of two children in a cubicle with one 10-year-old taking her trousers off. Lord also recorded an 11-year-old girl pulling off her jogging bottoms.
The court heard he filmed a woman taking her swimming costume off, which exposed her breasts.
Police examined his search history and found he had used the term “PTHC”, which stands for pre-teen hard core. He has also accessed a video called “hidden camera in WC”.
Lord, from Corvette Court in Butetown, did not answer any questions in his police interview, but later admitted voyeurism and making indecent images of children.
Mr Salmman said his client had no previous convictions and suggested he had shown “sincere remorse” in a letter to the court.
He said Lord told his partner, family, and close friends about his offending and started private counselling sessions.
He was judged to present a low risk of re-offending.
Judge Tracey Lloyd-Clarke said the offences were “simply too serious” for anything other than an immediate custodial sentence.
Lord was jailed for 16 months and the judge made a 10-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order. He must register as a sex offender for the same period. An application was made for the spy watch and laptop to be destroyed.