Cork court hears man filmed stepdaughter in shower room from attic above

The stepfather of a 16-year-old girl secretly cut a hole in the attic over the shower in the family home and filmed her removing her clothes and washing, and he was jailed for two years today.

Judge Helen Boyle sentenced the 35-year-old to three years in prison with the last year suspended on a charge of attempting to make child pornography.

The victim said in a statement read on her behalf by Detective Garda Kevin Hastings: “When I was sixteen years old my mother's boyfriend secretly cut a hole in the attic so he could take photos and videos of me while I was in the shower and undressed. This completely destroyed any sense of safety or comfort I had in my own home.

“After the incident, he repeatedly tried to shift the blame onto me, saying that I had somehow provoked him, even though I rarely ever spoke to him. This was extremely hurtful and confusing, as I had done absolutely nothing to encourage or justify his actions. 

"For several months after this happened, I was terrified to use the shower in my own home. I felt constantly watched and unsafe. This crime has so deeply affected my life that I don't even feel like a person anymore.

“I am still scared to use the bathroom in my own house. This makes me feel terrified and constantly on edge. I cannot enjoy something as simple as taking a shower because this fear is always in my mind. 

"I just want to finally feel at peace in my own home and not have to live in fear anymore.

"At the time, I was in fifth year of secondary school. My mental health declined rapidly. I became withdrawn, anxious, and depressed, and my schoolwork suffered badly.

"Four years later, I am still living with the consequences. I suffer from severe anxiety, frequent panic attacks, and ongoing depression. I am now in trauma therapy and on a high dose of antidepressants. I'm trying to move forward, but I still live in fear.

“This also caused a strain in me and my mother's relationship which we can only work on repairing once he is out of our lives. I know I can never go back to how I was before this happened. 

"I will have to struggle with the impact on my mental health for the rest of my life. What he did has permanently changed who I am, how I see myself, and how safe I feel in the world.

"What he did to me was not just a violation of my privacy, it was a complete betrayal of trust. He claims to see me as his own daughter, which makes me afraid … if this is how far he was willing to go with me, even though he claims to see me as 'his own'."

Judge Boyle commended Det Garda Hastings for the persistence in using emerging computer technologies to bypass security codes which the defendant would not give them in order to examine the computer tablet on which the offensive material was stored.

During the sentencing hearing, Det Garda Hastings explained the rational for the charge of attempting to produce child pornography. 

He said that for a charge of actually producing child pornography the anal or genital area would have to be visible and this was not so because of the positioning of a camera overhead.

The judge noted the defendant’s assertion that he did not make the recordings for sexual purposes, but to have them in order to blackmail his partner in a dispute about another matter. 

Judge Boyle said whether or not that was true, the impact on the victim was still serious, irrespective of the defendant’s motivation.