A man who cut a hole in the attic of his home in order to record videos of his 16-year-old stepdaughter in the shower has been jailed for two years.
The man, who cannot be named to protect the identity of his victim, appeared before Cork Circuit Criminal Court for sentencing on Friday. He previously pleaded guilty to one count of attempting to produce child pornography.
Det Garda Kevin Hastings said in evidence that the recordings came to light in September of 2021. Several devices were seized and thumbnails of videos were found. The videos involved the teenager being filmed while she was naked in the shower.
Gardaí also found a 23-minute accidental recording the man made, which showed him setting up a camera in the attic. The camera looked down into the shower in a bathroom in the family home.
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The young woman, in a victim impact statement, told Judge Helen Boyle that her stepfather “had completely destroyed” her sense of safety and comfort at home.
“After the incident, he repeatedly tried to shift the blame on to me, saying that I had somehow provoked him, even though I rarely ever spoke to him ... I had done absolutely nothing to encourage or justify his actions,” she said.
“For several months after this happened, I was terrified to use the shower ... I am still scared to use the bathroom in my own house.”
The injured party was in fifth year of secondary school when the offences occurred, on a date unknown between January 1st, 2021, and September 22nd, 2021.
She stated that her mental health “declined rapidly” after she found out what had been going on in her home.
“I became withdrawn, anxious, and depressed, and my schoolwork suffered ... When I sat my Leaving Cert, I was still deeply affected.”
The injured party emphasised that she still lives with the consequences of his actions four years on from the incident. She indicated that she suffers from severe anxiety, frequent panic attacks, and ongoing depression. She is in trauma therapy and on antidepressants.
The middle-aged defendant is without previous convictions. He pleaded guilty to the offence before the court.
The judge said that the filming of the injured party in the shower represented a gross violation of her privacy and a grievous betrayal of her trust.
She noted the guilty plea in the case, the steady work history and lack of previous convictions of the accused.
The judge said the man had denied a sexual motive, instead claiming he filmed the young girl in order to blackmail her mother about another matter. The judge told the accused that, whatever his motive was, “the impact is still the same”.
The accused is now homeless and lives in his car. The probation service has deemed him to be of low risk of reoffending.
The judge jailed the man for three years, suspending the final year of the sentence. He has also been placed on the sex offenders register.
