A hidden camera creep tried to spy on a Perthshire schoolgirl while she was showering.
Peeping Tom Carl Fisher concealed a digital recording device inside a laundry pile in the bathroom of the 15-year-old’s house.
But he was found out when the girl moved the clothes heap with her foot and noticed Fisher’s camera set up to film the room.
A black piece of tape had been stuck on top of the camera to hide it’s red recording light.
The 54-year-old was found guilty of using lewd, indecent and libidinous practices towards the youngster following a two-day trial at Perth Sheriff Court.
The offence happened in April 2008.
Tesco delivery driver Fisher was placed on the Sex Offenders Register and will be sentenced in December.
Excuse for black tape over camera light
Fisher, a model train enthusiast, denied the allegation throughout his trial.
He said he had accidently left the camera in the girl’s bathroom on another date in 2012.
Fisher, from Paignton, in Devon, said he had placed the black piece of tape over the light after being abused online by fellow model train fans.
“I had been filming my train layout,” he said.
“Trains don’t go through red lights.
“I had been criticised online about the red light, so I had put some tape over it.”
Found ‘something solid’ in the clothes heap
The girl said Fisher had used the bathroom before she went in to shower.
She told the court she heard a tearing sound, which she said may have been the tape.
Inside, she saw the pile of clothes on the floor and kicked them and “felt something solid”.
She picked up the camera, which was recording, and went to confront Fisher.
Fisher later confessed what he had done to the girl’s mother.
Sheriff’s ruling
Sheriff Pino di Emidio told Fisher he found the young victim and her mum to be credible witnesses.
He believed the incident took place in 2008, and not 2012 as Fisher had claimed.
When questioned about the date, the mum had told the trial: “I remember thinking, she’s not even 16 yet.”
Sheriff di Emidio said of Fisher’s evidence: “It has not caused me to have a reasonable doubt about the Crown’s case.”
Fisher was convicted of entering the girl’s bathroom – knowing that she was about to have a shower – and secreting a camera within a pile of clothing “affording a view of the bathroom” with the intention of recording the teenager while she was in a state of undress.
He held his head in his hands as the sheriff announced his verdict.
