Paedophile who used hidden camera to film girls changing at swimming pools is jailed

A paedophile who used a hidden camera to film women and young girls changing at swimming pools has been jailed.

Laurence Wheeler, 32, was also prosecuted after inciting a young girl to carry out indecent acts with him.

He admitted to possessing more than 500 indecent images of children, five counts of voyeurism and two counts of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity over a three-year period.

Wheeler was given a six-year sentence with an extended licence supervision period of a further two years when he appeared by video link at Hove Crown Court on Thursday.

Sussex Police first arrested Wheeler at a property in New Addington, Croydon, in May last year after intelligence about indecent images of children was obtained by officers.

They found the hundreds of child abuse images, plus videos filmed with a phone hidden in a bathroom at an address in Hove in 2017 showing three women.

Videos of children filmed under the partition in changing rooms at a swimming pool in London were also found.

Officers also obtained messages from Wheeler to a young girl with two videos showing indecent acts, which were filmed in 2018.

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Detective Constable Matt Digweed of the Brighton Safeguarding Investigations Unit said: "Wheeler had taken advantage of his access to physically abuse a trusting small girl and had also systematically planned to invade the privacy of the women and the other young children, all for his own sexual gratification.

"When confronted with the outcome of our detailed investigation he had little option but to plead guilty, which then had to reduce the length of the sentence he received.”

Mr Digweed added: "As one of the victim impact statements read out in court showed, his offending has had a devastating impact on the young girl and her family.

"However he is now safely away from potential victims, and we now have systems in place to monitor and help control his behaviour when he is eventually released."

Wheeler will not be eligible for parole until he has served two-thirds of a six-year sentence, and whenever he is released, he will be on licence until April 2028.

He will be a registered sex offender for life and was also made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order for life.

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