March 2017
Washbag camera man avoids jail term
An already convicted pervert hid a camera in a washbag to secretly video a friend’s children as they had a bath.
Richard Dunn Alcroft, 40, of Ardrossan, bugged his own spongebag while staying overnight at his friends’ house in Sauchie, Clackmannanshire, before a planned holiday with them and their two children, aged four and seven, Falkirk Sheriff Court was told last Thursday.
Prosecutor Graham McLachlan said: “The accused was staying overnight at his friends’ house before going on holiday with him and his family.
“He had occasion to use the toilet and placed his washbag in the bathroom.
“Later his friend’s wife went to bath their two children, and during the course of them being bathed one of the children noticed there was something odd about the toiletries bag, which had been placed near the bath.
“It was then noticed there was some kind of camera in the washbag.
“A hole had been cut in the bad to allow the lens to operate.”
Alcroft was confronted with the evidence and left the house at once.
Police were called and Alcroft was arrested. He appeared on petition at Alloa Sheriff Court in early February, and instructed his lawyers not to apply for bail.
In the dock at Falkirk, Alcroft, of South Isle Road, pleaded guilty to two charges of filming children doing a private act. The offences were committed on February 2, 2017.
Brian Black, defending, said: “He knows he needed help.”
In view of the time he had spent in custody before appearing for sentence, Sheriff Craig Caldwell refrained from jailing Alcroft, but placed him under supervision for three years under a community payback order and on the sex offenders’ register for a similar period.
He was also made subject to a sexual offences prevention order, preventing him having unsupervised access to children for five years.
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