Thaindian News

London, Aug 17 (ANI): A man in Perth, who ran a B and B guesthouse, has been unmasked as a vile Peeping Tom, after he secretly taped guests having sex in their rooms.

James Stratton, 67, a former telly engineer, is said to have recorded so much X-rated footage at Rosebank Guest House, Perth, over four years, he hired a storage unit at an airport to stash it all.

He would use tiny pinhole cameras disguised as smoke detectors to film romps - then later watched hours of sordid action on a flat screen TV in his shed.Stratton began his sordid surveillance scam in November 2005, after he bought state-of-the-art recording equipment including motion sensors, which he placed inside the bogus safety devices.

Then when he and wife Muriel decided to rent out two rooms to lodgers at his family home in September 2008, he rigged up more cameras to watch their every move.

Working behind the back of wife Muriel - who, the court was told, had no idea what her husband was up to - he fed cables through the attic and over a garage roof into the back garden of the property.

He then viewed the stash of recorded footage in his private shed - which was kitted out with a fridge freezer, a locked door and curtains across the window.

The court was told he was finally caught in April last year when a female lodger became suspicious.

“She became aware of noises in the attic and had a general feeling she was being watched,” the Sun quoted prosecutor Charmaine Cole as saying.

The woman then called her electrician brother - who examined the detector only to discover a covert camera inside.

The furious pair confronted Stratton - who initially denied any knowledge of the camera.

But when the police were called they discovered another device in the other lodger’s room.

A third was also picked up in the hall - followed by a fourth hidden in the sitting room.

“The complainer has been traumatised. She feels totally violated and has been struggling to come to terms with this,” Cole stated.

Police then turned to the storage unit Stratton kept at the airport - and discovered a 8,080 hardcore child porn images plus 622 child porn videos.

Many of those were at level five - the worst category of child porn - and were stored along with footage of people having sex in Stratton’s properties.

He has pleaded guilty to a catalogue of offences.

“Only those who are grossly perverted, or become so, could watch these tapes without revulsion,” Sheriff John McInnes told him during the trial.

Sheriff Michael Fletcher has deferred sentence on Stratton for reports, and he was also placed on the sex offenders’ register and was freed on bail. (ANI)