A swimming instructor abused his position to film unsuspecting female victims in changing rooms, Perth Sheriff Court has heard.
Craig Brown was working at schools and leisure facilities across Perth and Kinross, Dundee and Angus, where he is alleged to have captured images of the women in states of undress.
An extensive investigation was undertaken by police to match images with locations, leaning extensively on 31-year-old Brown’s employment records.
Detective Sergeant James Thomson said a number of victims had been identified and shown footage taken from his phone.
“There were a large number of images on Mr Brown’s phone and we were keen to identify where they had been taken and the people in the images,” he said.
“We investigated where he had worked and where he had been. It was a protracted inquiry, centred on not just Perth and Kinross but also Dundee and Angus, while we also looked at leisure facilities in central Scotland and Fife.
“There was a mixture of upset, distress and anger amongst those who were filmed. The revelation of what had taken place affected some of the women quite badly.”
The court was told the alleged offences came to light when one woman spotted a mobile phone being held under her changing room cubicle at Perth Leisure Pool.
Jurors were shown video footage in which Brown could be seen walking back and forward between showers and changing cubicles at the pool.
Mr Thomson offered narration, identifying Brown as he eventually entered a changing cubicle.
Shortly thereafter a woman, wrapped in a towel was seen to exit her adjacent cubicle and knock on that occupied by Brown.
Jurors were told that she had demanded his mobile phone, which was handed over, and had then told the accused to bring the matter to the attention of a member of staff.
He was shown doing so in another piece of video footage, during which his alleged victim is seen holding his mobile phone.
One particular piece of video footage found on the phone identified Brown as its owner. Mr Thomson said it had shown a male showering and then committing a solo sex act.
“It was taken within the swimming pool area at Craigie High School in Dundee,” he said. “The man was wearing a purple watch and a distinctive band on his right wrist, both of which were later recovered from Mr Brown’s house.”
Brown, of Balunie Crescent, Dundee, faces eight charges of recording and taking images of women in changing rooms at Perth Leisure Pool, at Craigie High, Menzieshill High and St John’s RC High schools in Dundee and at the Red Lion Caravan Park in Arbroath on dates between April 26, 2010 and February 8, 2012. He denies all the charges.
The trial, before a jury of 10 men, seven women and Sheriff Lindsay Foulis, continues.