October 2012

Stepdad secretly filmed me naked for years …yet my mum stood by him – Click link for the SUN story

TRUSTING teen Bethany had thought her mum’s boyfriend was a good bloke ever since he had moved into the family home when she was seven.

Camping trips, cinema visits, bike rides and meals out were the stuff of a happy childhood for Bethany and her older brother Nathan.

So they were delighted, in 2009, when mum Tracy finally tied the knot with Michael Connor.

But a month later their world fell apart when Bethany, then 15, logged on to a family laptop and discovered Connor had been secretly filming her NAKED in her bedroom 

She found video footage of her getting changed for school, undressing or drying off after showers and, chillingly, a sequence where Connor came into the room to test the cameras.

Sickeningly, for years he had been collecting the images and ogling them in a file he callously named “home videos”.

Disgusted Bethany, now 18, who is training to be a nurse, says: “I felt sick when I found the videos.

“There were ten different sets of footage. In some of them I was in my bra and pants but in others I was completely naked.

“I was in shock staring at the screen and started panicking when the second video showed my step dad Michael coming into my room in the morning to test the cameras.

“Complete horror washed over me when I realised it was him. I didn’t want to believe it. There were graphic videos of me drying off after a shower. I was shaking as I realised the man I trusted as my dad was a sick pervert.

“I ran into my room frantically looking for the cameras but I couldn’t find anything.

“I desperately wanted to tell my mum but was terrified by Michael after seeing the videos and thought my mum wouldn’t believe me, so I kept it to myself.”

But then, in February this year, Bethany noticed Connor, 39, had been spending more time on his laptop — and she was appalled to find a batch of fresh footage.

She says: “I couldn’t believe he was still recording me. I was sure I’d checked my room before but I was later to find out the cameras he was using were hidden in PENS so I never noticed them.

“This time I confided in my boyfriend Ryan and his shock made me realise I should have told someone the first time round. So I waited for Michael to go out and showed my mum the videos.”

Mum Tracy, 40, sobbed as Bethany also revealed she had found similar images when she was just 15.

But in a shock double betrayal, secretary Tracy begged her daughter not to report her husband to the police.

Bethany, from Leeds, says: “I thought that, by confiding in my mum, I would finally have a weight lifted and my family could be free of Michael. Instead she stuck by him. My stomach lurched as she told me not to go to the police and that we should sort it out as a family.”

While Bethany stood in shock, brother Nathan, 21, ignored his mum’s pleas and called the police.

She says: “I was scared but knew it was the only way to stop Michael if my mum wouldn’t support me.

“Police searched the house after they saw the videos and I was horrified when they found two pinhead cameras in my bedroom.”

Connor was arrested, banned from contacting Bethany and moved out of the family home to a hostel.

In August, Connor pleaded guilty to two charges of voyeurism and got three years’ community service, three years’ probation and five years on the sex offenders’ register. Bethany said: “It was a huge relief.”

But she added: “He’d convinced Mum he did the filming for my own good because he wanted to check I was doing my homework properly.

“I couldn’t believe it — the only film on the computer was me naked or in my underwear.”

She and Nathan have now moved out of the family home and no longer speak to their mum as they cannot accept she has chosen their Peeping Tom stepdad over them.

Bethany says: “I’d try to talk to Mum about what happened but she just kept saying Mike was a good dad. I’m devastated.”

She was four when her mum split with her biological dad — and she lost touch with him. Three years later her mum met Connor.

Bethany says: “I called him Mike and although he could be strict, he helped with my homework and would go on bike rides with me. We went camping as a family and, as we got older, for restaurant meals and to the cinema.

“I felt so lucky because Mum and I were close, too.

“We watched soaps together and cuddled up on the sofa.”

But little did she know the horror that was about to unfold — and how she would fear her mum blaming HER for Connor’s depravity.

She recalls: “I was scared Mum would get angry with me for what had happened. I was confused and I knew it would cause a huge row as Mum worshipped him so I kept quiet and hoped it would stop.”

But as Bethany avoided Connor, his behaviour changed. She says: “He hated me getting male attention or bringing male friends home and disliked me dressing up to go out.

“I didn’t want to be in the same room as him and often got changed in the bathroom if he was home.”

After six months, he started to back off and she noticed him using his computer less so hoped things between them would improve. But at the start of this year, she grew suspicious when he began acting shadily and she noticed her room door was left open.

She says: “I went on to the computer, searched every file and eventually found one full of fresh footage of me naked. They were recent videos and my heart was pounding out of my chest.

“I felt sick, angry and devastated that the man I thought of as my dad was a sick pervert. I expected Mum to be disgusted and I want him out of her life. But after the initial shock, she wanted to defend him and was furious when the police were called.” Bethany, who has since been in touch with her biological dad, says: “Mum didn’t come to the court but Ryan, Nathan and I were there.

“The prosecution said that when police asked Michael why he did it, he replied I was an attractive girl.

“His dirty films were nothing to do with ensuring I was studying.

“I’ve since seen Mum walking along the street laughing with him and when I called recently to see if I could collect some more belongings, she told me I couldn’t because Michael was there. I feel so betrayed by them both.

“I thought Mum would always be there for me and protect me but instead she walks hand in hand with the man who spied on her teenage daughter.”

When asked if she had anything to say, Tracy said: “Bethany is my daughter but left home for other reasons, which I don’t want to go into. I’ve given her everything and I can’t believe she treats her family like this.”