Man hid phone in vase to secretly record woman

Andrew Thomas admitted the offence at Perth Sheriff Court

A groundskeeper snuck into a woman's home to plant a hidden camera which recorded her getting undressed.

Andrew Thomas admitted recording more than 40 hours of footage over six months from an iPhone attached to the inside of a vase with Velcro at the 65-year-old's home in Perthshire.

Thomas, 49, was caught when the woman went to rearrange a bunch of artificial flowers at the foot of her bed.

He admitted one charge of voyeurism under the Sexual Offences Act 2009 between 29 January and 29 July 2023 at Perth Sheriff Court, but sentencing was deferred until a later date.

Thomas' lawyer told the court he had become "infatuated" with the woman, who lived alone in a small village near Thomas' home town of Pitlochry, but that his feelings were not reciprocated.

The pair would socialise together and shared "coffees, alcoholic drinks and dog walks".

Romantic feelings

The court heard that in December 2022, Thomas, a former offshore worker, told the woman he had "deeper romantic feelings towards her" but she did not share them.

More than six months later, the woman was rearranging the flowers facing her bed when she discovered the white iPhone inside the vase, connected to a power bank.

"She became aware of an object within the vase, which had a camera lens pointing in the general direction of her bed," fiscal depute Rachel Hill said.

The phone was stuck on using Velcro and protruding from the vase by about an inch.

The woman found that a video recording with a time of 40 hours and 45 minutes was active.

Her daughter later inspected the phone's photo gallery and found 34 files showing images and video of the woman in various states of undress.

The following day, Thomas entered the woman's home shortly after she left for church.

However, the woman's daughter and her partner, who were passing the property, saw him inside.

They found that the back door had been unlocked with a spare key that had been stored in the porch and was standing open.

'Violated'

They found Thomas inside and when confronted, he paused before claiming he was looking for a hedge trimmer battery, sometimes kept indoors instead of the garage.

Thomas was told he had no business being in the house and he agreed to leave. Police went to his home later that day.

Thomas admitted to police that he had placed the phone inside the vase and had returned to replace the battery pack on numerous occasions.

He confirmed that he had romantic feelings towards the complainer and said the recordings were captured for a sexual purpose.

It later emerged Thomas had been convicted of a similar crime in 2014.

He had been given an unpaid work order after he was caught secretly filming a female colleague showering in her cabin on a North Sea rig.

Sheriff Alison McKay deferred sentence and said: "I probably can't send him to custody for as long as he deserves.

"I absolutely understand the complainer feels completely violated, and feels her home has been violated.

"There is no doubt your behaviour was serious and custody is one of the alternatives available to the court."