A voyeur who filmed women and girls using hidden cameras and incited a young girl to masturbate him has been jailed for six years.
Laurence Wheeler, 32, filmed children in public swimming pool changing rooms and three women by hiding the phone he had placed in one his victim’s bathroom in Hove.
He was also caught with more than 500 indecent images of children – including two videos he had made himself when he persuaded the nine-year-old girl to masturbate him.
Today, Wheeler appeared virtually at Hove Crown Court where a victim statement from the girl’s mother was read out by prosecutor Rachel Beckett.
In it, she described the moment she was told what had happened by police officers who had discovered the images.
She said: “I couldn’t take it in, I sat bolt upright and felt I was going to be physically sick and burst into tears.
“Since that afternoon trying to live everyday life as “normal” has been something I find difficult to say the least.
“The world carries on whilst I am walking around in a daze, numb of emotions.
“Most days I find that I am physically here but I’m not present. I’ve become forgetful. I see him everywhere. Whether it is thinking I’ve spotted him at a bus stop or just in my head, I feel so anxious and nervous I can’t let any of my children out of my sight.
“Every day is different. Sometimes my daughter wakes in her usual mode before this all happened. Her best self; kind, happy, helpful and ready for the day.
“I think we are going to have a good day today. But that can change in a second.
“She becomes angry, spiteful and hateful out of nowhere. I find myself having to remember she is only ten years old and she doesn’t know how to express her emotions.
“She often just bursts into tears and says ‘Why can’t I just be a normal child, one that isn’t scared of fireworks, one that doesn’t have to speak with the police and one that isn’t horrible to her family?’
“It breaks my heart and I am devastated to hear my daughter say these things.
“Hove had become our happy place … our happy place has become a nightmare.”
Wheeler was initially arrested at his mother’s home in New Addington, Croydon, on May 20, 2019 after police tracked him down online.
When police sifted through the 548 indecent images of children, the officer found videos filmed with a phone hidden in a bathroom in 2017, featuring three women.
There were also videos of boys and girls, some naked, filmed under the partition in communal changing rooms at a London swimming pool in August 2016.
And most disturbingly, the officer also found several messages from Wheeler to the young girl as well as the two videos, which were filmed in 2018.
He was then charged with three counts of indecent images, five counts of voyeurism and two counts of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.
He pleaded guilty to all these charges at an earlier hearing.
Mitigating, Justin Rivett said he had started offending after becoming drawn in by chat rooms online.
He said: “He began to converse with others about sexual matters which were legal but he seems to have been drawn into ever more unpleasant and illegal chat groups which encouraged those taking part to post their own images which they had obtained.
“He has candidly admitted that he did this, but he’s always been adamant that he didn’t share the videos of his conduct with the girl.
“He’s upset and traumatised by his actions. He does express what seems to be genuine remorse and regret over his behaviour while still struggling to understand why he behaved the way he did.”
Sentencing, Her Honour Judge Anne Arnold said there was no alternative but to pass a significant custodial sentence given the three years the offences took place over and the abuse of trust of some of the victims.
She said: “Your offending over a number of years has had a devastating impact as set out in the victim impact statements we have heard today, most notably your child victim and her family.”
She sentenced him to eight months for the three counts of possessing indecent images, ten months for the five counts of voyeurism and six years for the two counts of inciting sexual activity.
The sentence was extended because he is a risk to the public for a further two years, which means he will not be eligible for parole until he has served two thirds of the six-year custodial sentence, and when he is released, he will be on licence until April 2028.
He was also placed on the sex offenders register and made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order for life.
