Man gets 18 months for peeping

LONDON, Ont . — A peeping Tom 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. While 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.

Some sought mental health crisis help and counselling.