A St Austell surveyor who secretly filmed two teenage girls and two women as they undressed in the changing rooms at a St Austell swimming pool has been handed a suspended jail term by magistrates.
Steffan Allen, 42, balanced a mobile phone in his shoe under the changing room partition at Polkyth Leisure Centre and captured two girls aged 14 and 15 on film – one of them topless – on March 19 last year, Bodmin court was told.
When his phone was seized, footage of two adult women with their private parts visible was found in previous recordings made on October 1, 2014 and February 19, 2015.
Allen, who gave an address at Trethosa Road, St Austell, told police he had done it for “a thrill”.
At the conclusion of the case against him at Bodmin Magistrates’ Court on Thursday (February 4), Allen asked for the forgiveness of all those who had been affected by his actions which he described as “despicable”.
He pleaded guilty to four charges of voyeurism – recording a person doing a private act for his sexual gratification – when he appeared before
Alison May, for the prosecution, said that the teenagers were sharing a cubicle in the unisex changing rooms when they noticed a mobile phone propped up in a shoe and pointing under the partition from the neighbouring cubicle.
They sought help from staff who together with an off-duty police officer saw Allen emerge from his cubicle with the phone.
Other police had arrived and there was a struggle as they tried to seize the phone.
When it was examined officers found further footage of the adult women changing.
Julian Berg, for the defence, said that Allen, who has no previous convictions, had been suffering from depression and felt he needed a thrill as he felt “flat” and without emotion.
He had committed the offences “blind” not knowing who was in the cubicles and had not realised the girls were teenagers.
Having led a previously “impeccable” life, he regretted his actions and felt very ashamed.
Probation officer Tony Ciocci, giving a pre-sentence report, said that at the time Allen, who is now separated from his wife, had been going through difficulties in his relationship and had begun to use legal internet pornography.
He had seen images obtained from covert filming and when he decided to start going swimming to lose weight he thought he would film women in the same way.
There had been a degree of premeditation, said Mr Ciocci, as when Allen was swimming if he saw a woman he would engineer a situation so that he could observe them.
The magistrates sentenced Allen to 36 weeks’ custody, suspended for two years, with a rehabilitation activity requirement of up to 30 days and 120 hours of unpaid work.
He was ordered to register as a sex offender for the next ten years and observe a Sexual Harm Prevention Order which restricts his contact with under-16s and use of recording devices. He was also ordered to pay £85 costs and an £80 victim surcharge.
At the conclusion of the hearing Allen told the court. “I wish to apologise to all the people involved and their families. It was a despicable thing to do and I hope they can find it in their hearts to forgive me one day.
