The pregnant woman who caught a serial voyeur masseur

Louise said she was now "constantly on edge looking for something that doesn't sit right" when she went out

Louise was nearly six months' pregnant when she spotted something suspicious after having had a massage - a digital clock wired up to a laptop computer.

Immediately afterwards Louise - not her real name - searched online for "digital clock, hidden camera".

The first result confirmed her worst fears.

Her detective work exposed a voyeur masseur who had secretly filmed about 900 women as they undressed.

Julian Roddis, 50, of Crowhurst, Peterborough, was subsequently jailed for four years after admitting nine counts of voyeurism.

Here, in her own words, Louise reveals for the first time how she caught him red-handed.

'We talked about my pregnancy losses'

I was pregnant and, to try to help me relax, my brother-in-law bought me a massage.

When I called the masseur, Roddis, I was initially a little bit apprehensive because I realised it was a man, but I kind of thought: "No, it's the 21st Century, it'll be fine, I'll go for it."

I went and he seemed all right at first, quite chatty and friendly, and he showed me into the room where I could get undressed and said: "You can fold your clothes up, put them on there, pop a towel around you and, when you're ready, just shout through the door and I'll come in for the massage."

Julian Roddis was jailed for four years for voyeurism

I took my coat off and sat down to take my shoes off and realised there was a laptop there.

Immediately I thought "laptops have a camera, that's a bit suspect" but had a closer look and realised the webcam had been taped over.

I thought he had clearly taken precautions to make people feel comfortable and know that he is not recording.

I got undressed, popped the towel around me and shouted him in for the massage. There were a couple of moments where you feel slightly uncomfortable, but are not sure if he is overstepping the mark or if you are just being a bit over-cautious, like with how high the towel was when I rolled on to my side.

Other than that, he made me feel at ease. We talked about my previous pregnancy losses and why it was important to me to stay calm during the pregnancy.

Afterwards, as I went to go put my clothes back on, I looked over and saw that there was a little digital clock next to the laptop.

I kind of thought nothing of it and then thought "Well, there's a laptop, so he doesn't need the time because it's displayed on the laptop - why has he even got a digital clock?"

Roddis used a camera disguised as digital clock to film his victims

I then saw that it was plugged into the laptop with a cable and that it also had a memory card slot on the side. That immediately kind of made me a bit suspicious.

There was also little red light showing and my head just immediately went to "hidden camera" and I was analysing it to figure out if there was a hole where a camera could be.

I did not want to make it obvious that I was staring at the clock in case he watched the footage back, so I just carried on getting dressed away from the clock as best as I could and then thought I need to memorise the clock and its features in case I need to describe it to anyone and look it up later.

I called him back in, was really polite and, like, "Thank you very much, see you later, bye," took a leaflet and ran off.

I then sat in the car and went straight on to Amazon and searched "digital clock, hidden camera" and it was the first one that came up.

So I was like: "Yeah, that was a hidden camera and it was clearly switched on because it had a red light on it."

Louise's brother-in-law paid for the massage as a gift to help her relax during pregnancy

As a woman, you are always a little bit on edge if you are in a compromising or vulnerable position, especially when you're pregnant and you're naked and alone with a completely strange man. You are always going to be on the defensive.

So I think in a way I was looking to make sure that he was completely legitimate and trustworthy and, as soon as I found a hole in that, I was like "there's something wrong here" and my instinct just kicked in.

It just felt really surreal, like I had walked into a television programme or something. And then I was like "No, no, it can't be. That's not real, no-one would do that". I thought maybe I'd got it wrong.

I called my partner and he was kind of like "Well, maybe it's the pregnancy hormones, maybe you're reading into something and it's not what you think it is".

I then called my sister and she told me to ring police.

What is voyeurism?

Gina Martin's campaign led to a Parliamentary Bill being passed

In law in England and Wales, a person has committed an act of voyeurism if they:

• Observe for their own sexual gratification someone else "doing a private act"

• Know the other person does not consent to being observed

Its profile was raised following a campaign by Gina Martin, who campaigned to make upskirting an offence after she was targeted at a music festival, and led to the Voyeurism (Offences) Act 2019 being passed.

According to Office of National Statistics figures, 10,203 voyeurism and exposure offences were recorded by police between April 2020 and March 2021 in England and Wales.

I rang 101 [the police non-emergency number] and was booked in for an appointment the following day with two male PCs, where I showed them a picture of the clock and they asked "Are you sure it was that clock? Are you sure it was recording you?"

I said I could not be certain that it was, but it looks exactly the same and felt it was worth investigating regardless.

Then they said that they had spoken to a sergeant and that the best way forward was to confirm with the masseur if he had a legitimate reason to be recording people because they said he might feel that he needs to protect himself against accusations.

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They indicated that they wanted me to go back and ask him why he was recording me, at which I pointed out I was five-and-a-half months pregnant and vulnerable and I didn't think it was a good idea to send a pregnant woman alone to ask him why he had recorded her.

I left the meeting and cried. I was angry because I knew that that was wrong. I had followed the whole Gina Martin upskirting bill and I just knew that that wasn't allowed.

If you can't take a picture of up somebody's skirt without their knowledge or consent, why would you be able to take a picture of somebody naked?

I made a complaint that I didn't think that it was dealt with correctly, and they said they would look into it.

A couple of weeks later I got a phone call from police to say they had gone to Roddis and he just admitted it outright upon being asked and surrendered all of the equipment.

Police found he had made about 2,000 videos of his clients and that there were more than 900 victims.

Det Insp Dave Savill said the force "put a lot of time and effort and expertise into the investigation and the result shows the merit of the work we've done"

Det Insp Dave Savill, from Cambridgeshire Police, the force that investigated Roddis, said officers "put a lot of time and effort and expertise into this investigation and the result shows the merit of the work we've done".

He said that between July 2020 and July 2021 the force had seen a 9% rise in reported sexual offences and was pleased more people were coming forward.

"Tackling crimes such as sexual offences are priorities for the force and we would encourage anyone with any concerns, or anyone who has been a victim of crime to come forward," he said.

"We have regular training for officers on the frontline relating to each force priority, and have recently introduced two new dedicated teams of officers and police staff to focus on the initial and early response to incidents, supporting frontline staff in order to safeguard the most vulnerable in our society.

"Safeguarding victims and taking action against offenders is a top priority and we want victims to know we are committed to ensuring they will be listened to and supported."

When I learned of what police discovered initially I was kind of relieved that I was not crazy. I trusted my instinct - and instinct was right.

But then I also got this kind of feeling of guilt that there were 900-odd other women that were potentially going to get a call from police to say "we found images of you" and obviously that opens up a can of worms for them.

Only nine victims have been identified and some had a really good relationship with him. They were regular clients and he was, in a sense, helping them and they felt like he was a friend.

He completely betrayed their trust and I feel quite guilty that I'm the one that has brought that to the forefront for them.

Louise says she does not understand Roddis' motivation

With regard to how I feel about Roddis himself, it's a really difficult question. I guess I feel sorry for him that that's what he's had to do. I don't understand his motivation at all.

There's still 890-odd women that don't know that they would have been filmed by him.

Because I was already quite anxious during my pregnancy the whole experience definitely exacerbated that.

I had a panic attack a few weeks after the police had started to investigate it and found the images and ended up having to get checked out in hospital.

Whenever I go anywhere now, even if it's a changing room to just try on some clothes, a hairdresser's, or getting eyelashes done - anywhere - I'm constantly on edge looking for something that doesn't sit right because now I can't trust anybody.

But, a few months after what happened with Roddis my little girl was born healthy and two years on going to nursery, completely unaffected by the experience.

As told to Jon Ironmonger. Additional reporting by Phil Shepka.