A married school lab technician who took 'upskirt' photos of a teacher under her desk and installed a hidden camera in her home has today been jailed for 41 months.
Michael Nicholls, 47, developed an 'infatuation and obsession' with his victim, who was unaware she was the subject of hundreds of voyeuristic images, the court heard.
His offences were uncovered after he accidentally dropped an SD card in the Welsh department at the school in Denbighshire, north-east Wales.
When its contents were examined in a bid to identify the owner of the card, footage of the victim using the bathroom was found.
The woman, unaware of what had been happening and of Nicholls's sexual interest in her, had been 'extremely upset' when she saw the video.
Nicholls was later arrested, and police seized numerous devices on which more than 2,300 'images of interest' were discovered - although many of them were duplicates.
Mold Crown Court heard Nicholls had an app on his phone which allowed the device to secretly record while the screen appeared to be turned off.
It was also said he had taped a camera under a desk and inside a bathroom in order to capture images and video of her.
Nicholls, from Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire, allegedly sneaked a camera into her bedroom when he visited her home.
He admitted voyeurism by recording a private act for sexual gratification and installing equipment, outraging public decency, and 'upskirting' on Wednesday.
Nicholls took secret photographs using equipment installed under a desk, in a bin and in a cupboard.
Prosecutor Sarah Badrawy said the victim had been friends with Nicholls and his wife, who was also a colleague.
Nicholls was jailed for 41 months at Mold Crown Court today. He was also handed a restraining order, which bans him from a town in Denbighshire for five years.
He must also register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.
This sounds like justice is served? 41 months custodial sentence - possibly cut short by half if good behavior. Permanent record.
Is this a satisfactory outcome or should the sentence been more severe?
Compare this to the report I think Syl posted of someone getting let off without a custodial sentence because he was the sole breadwinner to a family. I think he committed a sexual offence on a stranger - attacking them and feeling them up, which would have been worse - I think she either escaped or someone came to help. Can't remember the details.
This sounds like justice is served? 41 months custodial sentence - possibly cut short by half if good behavior. Permanent record.
Is this a satisfactory outcome or should the sentence been more severe?
Compare this to the report I think Syl posted of someone getting let off without a custodial sentence because he was the sole breadwinner to a family. I think he committed a sexual offence on a stranger - attacking them and feeling them up, which would have been worse - I think she either escaped or someone came to help. Can't remember the details.
The problem with what some seem to regard as petty ineffectual sexual offences is that this is at the core of what is wrong with society. There's this dichotomy of moral raging over sexism, and a whole generation who think it's OK to prance around like those two clowns at the Grammy awards. One of the reasons that idiot, Fluffy Bunny, came under fire on forums was her constant posting of links to her porn site where there were photos of her fingering herself while staring wistfully into the camera as though she was five years old. Women like that make me sick. Not because I'm a prude but because it perpetuates the mentality some men have that women are nothing but whores. If a woman wants to be treated with respect, than that respect for self has to be all down the line. But it never will be. And thus, men like this will always exist and indulge in behaviour that puts all women at risk.
-- Edited by Digger on Wednesday 17th of March 2021 07:58:28 PM
My view is that porn is different to real life upskirting and other real life offences and should never be used as an excuse for such behavior in the court of law. Of course it is fine to discuss it here in a non-judicial setting.
There are different types of porn - for those doing it willingly for money - for me that is up to them. In today's economy where many jobs are globalised - and go to places like China and India because people are paid less there - there are not that many opportunities to make money and many people teenage girls, young women, teenage boys, young men try to make money through internet porn. Exploiting people for porn of course I am against and that sounds like a crime to me. I feel uncomfortable mixing discussion of porn with real life invasion of privacy and attacks.
My view is that porn is different to real life upskirting and other real life offences and should never be used as an excuse for such behavior in the court of law. Of course it is fine to discuss it here in a non-judicial setting.
There are different types of porn - for those doing it willingly for money - for me that is up to them. In today's economy where many jobs are globalised - and go to places like China and India because people are paid less there - there are not that many opportunities to make money and many people teenage girls, young women, teenage boys, young men try to make money through internet porn. Exploiting people for porn of course I am against and that sounds like a crime to me. I feel uncomfortable mixing discussion of porn with real life invasion of privacy and attacks.
The problem these days is that porn is highly accessible. Its only recently been removed from sites like Tumblr where kids of any age could access it. Where it used to be confined to dirty old late night cinemas and mags on the top shelf it's now accessible on your phone, on Google, and anywhere else you can get away with posting it. Same with prostitution. That would be something you had to trawl the streets for or visit an adults only brothel. Now, kids can access it anywhere their phone or tablet will take them. And that's wrong. And it's damaging. Start with porn, then progress to taking that fantasy into real life. That's what these sickos do. Just like murderers often start their career with torturing and killing animals.
So, yes, porn can very easily translate into real life progression into more extreme sexual practices and fantasies, dangerous ones if that person has no self control.
That ghastly TV show, Naked Attraction? On the surface it may seem hilarious to some, but if you really look at what it is, it's pretty disgusting and base. The whole focus of someone's 'attractiveness' boiled down to their genitalia? Whatever.
If we are talking about the modern progressive society and younger generation culture we also have violent video games, violent films, 24 hour news showing real murders and real dead people, the dick pic where men and teenage boys send pictures of their genitalia and we also have teenage girls and women sending pictures of their genitalia and mammary glands. That is just the progressive consumer and liberal society. Despite all this that should never excuse real life threats, attacks and invasion of privacy which should be dealt with by the courts using appropriate sentencing.
The old 'softcore' hedge porn was fairly harmless and very rarely did a hardcore mag from Europe or a sex shop make the rounds amongst teenage kids.
When it did surface it was treated like gold dust amongst us hormonal lads.
Now highly violent extreme porn is everywhere at the touch of a button and surely that must have an effect on youngsters especially the way the woman are used and abused in such videos.
-- Edited by John Doe on Wednesday 17th of March 2021 10:23:55 PM
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