A PERVERT hid a camera in a bathroom so he could spy on a naked women in the shower, a court heard.
Vile Derek Robert Bathgate installed the digital camera disguised as an alarm clock at a flat in Edinburgh.
But when suspicious residents took a closer look, they spotted a camera lens in the clock face and a memory card for storing images in the back.
Bathgate, 43, appeared today (tue) at Edinburgh Sheriff Court, where he pled guilty to placing a covert camera within a communal bathroom.
The charge said he had recorded a woman “doing a private act with the intention of enabling yourself or another to look at the image of the [same woman] doing the act”.
The offence was said to have taken place between February 2011 and March 2011.
Bathgate, from North Berwick, East Lothian, also pled guilty to having indecent images of children – 108 pictures and one video – between May 2003 and March 2011.
Fiscal Depute Isabel Clark told the court that two residents of a flat in Edinburgh noticed a strange clock in the bathroom of their flat in Edinburgh.
She said: “They were a bit curious as to certain items in the bathroom.”
“There was a clock in the bathroom which was always situated towards the taps and the showers.”
She said a male flatmate eventually discovered the true purpose of the clock on 6 March last year.
Deferred
Ms Clark told the court: “He started to take a closer look at the clock. He discovered a micro USB port on the other side, and discovered a micro SD card which he removed.
“As he put it back he saw a camera lens at the 12 o’clock position.”
The man then warned his female flatmate, whom Bathgate had been spying on.
Ms Clark continued: “He told her what he had found about the clock and the bathroom.
“The matter was reported to the police. Police officers then attended the flat.”
The court heard that Bathgate told the officers: “I have a recording device in the bathroom in a clock.”
He also admitted to the officers that he had footage of the woman.
Police then searched Bathgate’s room and recovered DVDs, memory cards and several electrical storage items, the fiscal depute said.
Officers also found underwear and other camera clocks.
The indecent images of children were found on his computer.
Referring to the indecent images found on his computer, Ms Clark said ten of the images and the movie were at ‘level four’ – making them among the most serious in child pornography cases.
Ninety images were at level one, two were at level two and six were at level three.
Ms Clark said Bathgate pled guilty to the charges at an early stage.
Bathgate’s defence agent, Ross Gardiner, called for sentencing to be deferred for psychiatric reports.
Sheriff James Scott agreed to defer sentencing until 12 March this year.
