An Indian national has been arrested for installing hidden cameras across shower rooms and toilets in his office and coffee shops in London to film thousands of unsuspecting people. He has now been sentenced to four years in jail by a UK court.
Thomas filmed people in coffee shops, then match images with recordings from the toilet and would make compilation videos for his sexual gratification, reports The Telegraph.
He was caught when a female employee at the office found a device in the shower room. The police found a memory card with visuals that showed Thomas’s face while he was placing the device, reports the Daily Mail. Officers then went to the nearest coffee shop and discovered a second camera hidden in the customer toilet. Thomas was identified as the suspect in the footage and arrested.
“This case is undoubtedly a sophisticated, organised, planned and long-running campaign of voyeurism the scale of which, the court is told, is beyond any previously encountered by the Metropolitan Police,” said Judge Jeremy Donne.
Besides a four-year jail term, Thomas has been given a “Sexual Harm Prevention Order” for 10-years and will remain on the sex offenders’ register for life.
The London police said they’ve never seen a voyeurism case that had such a wide scope. Detective Constable Sarah Gardner said “The images of unsuspecting people going about their daily business, and having their privacy breached in this way was appalling”.
“Thomas’ offending was extraordinary, not just because of the sheer numbers of people he filmed but also due to the highly organised way, in which he saved, stored and filed the footage,” she said.