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.
