Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
WHERE IS OUR JUSTICE?
Authorities urged to re-think suspended sentence
VICTIMS of a former TV star handed a suspended sentence for sexually assaulting women want the court decision appealed.
They were secretly recorded by Co Down man Jeff Anderson, 29, who appeared on The Voice.
He was convicted of sexual assault, assault and 11 counts of voyeurism last week and given a three-year sentence which was suspended.
One woman asked: “Where’s justice for this victim? Where is the justice for all of Jeff Anderson’s victims?”
ering our human rights to privacy. Jeff Anderson’s secret treatment of me completely eradicated my sense of safety.
“I’d no idea that I was being recorded. I’d felt safe and trusted him but I was wrong.
“He took so much from me, my feeling of safety, my faith in people around me, my sense of my own judgement.
“I felt like I was being watched all the time for years after this, trapped in a constant state of hyper-vigilance.
“This was my life for years after discovering how he had abused me. I was severely depressed for around two years after learning what he did.
“Every time I got changed in my own bedroom, went to the toilet or took a shower, I felt sick at the thought that someone could be watching.
“I suffered panic attacks, feelings of being overwhelmed, frightened cameras were hidden everywhere. I couldn’t shake the fear.
“My trust in people has been shattered, I’ve been plunged into a state of extreme anxiety, suffering frequent nightmares about him or about being watched or filmed – and they continue to this day. It was exhausting.
“I was emotionally worn out, and extremely stressed. I stopped socialising.
“My hometown is very small and I didn’t know who he’d shown this footage to. Could he have put it on the internet?
“Does he still have access to the files through cloud storage? I’m plagued by those thoughts.
“Watching the recording, seeing him setting the camera up and hiding it, knowing that he’d lied to me moments before and acted completely normally afterwards, was highly unsettling.
“It was nauseating to sit with a police office and watch myself on film completely unaware I was being
He felt that he had the right to our bodies & to film them
VICTIM OF JEFFREY ANDERSON YESTERDAY
recorded, taking my clothes off and showering. What he did meant my body was not my own. It wasn’t up to me anymore who saw my naked body. It felt, and still feels, as though I have been publicly humiliated by him.
“I’ve suffered intense shame and embarrassment and I have to really try to control being suspicious of people.”
Another of Anderson’s victims said her teenage tattoo revealed her as an other unknowing victim.
Now a mum of two, she explained: “We were loosely involved when he secretly recorded me.
“We’d been out in the Rabbit Rooms in Bangor and I’d had too much to drink and got sick in my hair. When we got back to his family home I asked if I could have a shower and he got me towels and was very helpful.
“But he’d already had a camera placed on the toilet cistern.
“He recorded everything for his own thrills.
“After that he ghosted me, he moved on to an other girl. He did the same to a number of us.
“I just got on with my life for years until the police contacted me.
“They wanted to know if I knew a Jeffrey Anderson.
“I attended the police station and watched a video. I thought it would be someone else, but it was me.
“The tattoo I’d had done up the
Shankill [in Belfast] in a fit of rebellion when I was 16, was clearly visible. I was shocked, angry, disgusted and life has never been the same again.
“My feeling of security is gone. I have no idea who he shared that video with, I have no idea if there were other videos or photos. I just don’t know.
“What he did to me was appalling but I feel compared to some of the other girls, I was one of the luckier ones. At least I was conscious and able to control my own actions. Not everyone can say that. I think about it every day. I’ll never be the same after what he did. He deserves jail. I hope he gets it. Maybe then he’ll know what it feels like to be watched without consent.
“Until he gets locked away I have no real starting point to get over what he did. It haunts me.”
Judge Geoffrey Miller QC spoke of the impact Anderson’s offending on his victims who had described Anderson as portraying himself as outwardly confident and sexually experienced, but controlling. During sentencing, it emerged Anderson suffered a medical condition linked to erectile disfunction.
He claimed the making and viewing the secret recordings helped him achieve arousal.
He was dubbed ‘The Rich Kid’ at school, something he claimed impacted his self-esteem.
Anderson, who is employed writing jingles for his father’s advertising agency, was placed on the sex offenders’ register for 10 years and made the subject of a 10-year sexual offences prevention order.
He recorded everything for his own thrills
VICTIM OF ANDERSON EXPLAINS HER ORDEAL