UK holiday cottage owner spied on couples with camera in alarm clock
Stock photo, Whitby: PA
A Whitby holiday cottage owner who spied on his guests with a night vision camera hidden in the bedside alarm clock has been jailed for 12 months.
Jonathan Waugh, 52, was jailed on Tuesday after the hearing at York Crown Court heard he set up motion-sensor recording equipment in the main bedroom of the cottage and watched the images on a widescreen TV in the cottage he also owned opposite.
Waugh admitted buying the equipment for £600 on the internet, and used it to spy on couples for 13 months from October 2010 to November 2011, according to the Yorkshire Post.
The equipment was discovered by a guest who had gone to bed in the day feeling ill. He noticed something unusual about the clock, examined it and found a memory card installed inside.
He took it straight to the police station, and when Waugh was later questioned, he admitted that he had been addicted to pornography since his 20s and that he had been seeking treatment for his problems.
According to The Sun, Waugh received a number of positive online comments about the cottage from guests, with one of them recently writing: "A special mention must be made of the beds which were so comfortable that all of us had trouble leaving them."
Waugh, a former broadcasting engineer from Huddersfield, had previously pleaded guilty to two charges of voyeurism, and asked the court to take into consideration six further offences of installing recording devices and six of making recordings.
As well as being given a jail sentence, Waugh was also ordered to sign the sex offenders' register for 10 years.
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