A man living in Heckmondwike has been jailed after he secretly filmed a teenage girl having a bath while she was staying at his home.

Steven Garrett was a school caretaker when he installed a covert camera in the bathroom which transmitted pictures of the girl to a television and he then filmed the images on his mobile phone.

When his offending came to light some of the girl’s underwear was also discovered in his bedroom, items which he accepted he had used for his own sexual gratification.

Charlotte Eastwood, prosecuting at Leeds Crown Court, said both moving and still images of the schoolgirl were discovered on Garrett’s laptop when it was seized and at the time he denied he was responsible for them.

She said it was the crown’s case he had become obsessed with the girl who was 16 when the offences came to light after she told her mother she thought Garrett had been “doing weird stuff” at his home.

After she found out what he had done by recording her when she stayed there she said she felt violated and emotional. She had found it difficult to study and felt she could not trust older men.

Church Street, Heckmondwike
Church Street, Heckmondwike

Christopher Moran representing Garrett said he had subsequently admitted responsibility for the pictures and saved the girl having to given evidence at trial.

He also expressed remorse as indicated in a frank report from the Probation Service. “He accepted he does have a problem to do with images of teenage girls and understands he would benefit from access to treatment.”

Garrett, 49 of Church Street, Heckmondwike admitted voyeurism and making indecent photos of a child.

Jailing him for 32 months and ordering him to register indefinitely as a sex offender Judge Tom Bayliss QC said it was difficult to imagine how his victim must have felt to discover Garrett “had made her an object of his sexual fantasy.”

“You had a sexual obsession with this child. This was sophisticated voyeurism, she was known to you and this was a terrible breach of trust.”