A Border Force officer’s girlfriend, who helped him secretly film women in ferry port toilets and changing rooms using concealed mobile phones, has avoided jail.
Neil Adams and Stephanie Whitehead, both 40, made a series of recordings of women in cubicles, including at the Port of Calais and Dunkirk Ferry Port in France.
And the couple’s grim crimes were only uncovered when a horrified woman spotted one of the phones inside a towel as she used the cubicle with her young child.
The pair, who have a young son together, recorded 12 victims, some of whom said that they had stopped eating and drinking to avoid using the toilet since being filmed.
Whitehead, who also captured women in varying states of undress in clothing store changing rooms and a swimming pool including one ‘filmed topless’, avoided jail despite admitting seven counts of voyeurism.
Neil Adams and Stephanie Whitehead (pictured), both 40, made a series of recordings of women in cubicles, including at the Port of Calais and Dunkirk Ferry Port in France
Canterbury Crown Court heard she had been ‘drawn in’ to the perversion, which involved countless hidden recordings between 2014 and 2020.
She was handed a 12-month prison term suspended for two years and ordered to complete 180 hours of unpaid work.
Adams has been jailed for 28 months after admitting 11 counts of voyeurism and an unrelated sexual assault in 2014, in which he crept into a woman’s bedroom and stroked her leg without her consent.
He also admitted to making an indecent image of a child.
Prosecutor Kieran Brand revealed that the couple, both from Rye, East Sussex were finally reported after a woman found a mobile phone wrapped in a microfibre towel in the toilet.
He said: ‘The victim reports that as she bent down to pull up the child’s underwear she saw the sunlight on a camera lens.
‘She had located a mobile phone wrapped in a microfibre towel, facing the lavatory.
‘She saw that the phone screen was displaying what the camera was viewing and the red light showed it was recording.’
Police then raided the pair’s home in Ashford, Kent and an analysis into their mobile phones revealed the nasty details of the perverts’ crimes.
One victim told the court: ‘I feel repulsed every time someone wants to take a video of me – it makes me feel sick to my stomach.’
Nicholas Maggs, mitigating, said Whitehead had pleaded guilty at an early stage and had no previous convictions.
‘She is very remorseful for what happened,’ he said.
Recorder James Lofthouse told the couple: ‘These offences will have left a lasting impact on all your victims.
‘This was all for the perverse sexual gratification of both of you.’
Both criminals are subject to a sexual offence notification requirement for 10 years.
Adams (pictured) has been jailed for 28 months after admitting 11 counts of voyeurism and an unrelated sexual assault in 2014, in which he crept into a woman’s bedroom and stroked her leg without her consent
Adams was suspended from his role as a Border Force officer in September 2019 when bosses were made aware of the police investigation and was subsequently dismissed from his role in July 2021.
A Home Office spokesperson said following the sentence: ‘We expect the highest standards from our Border Force officers and that they treat everyone with dignity and respect.
‘Where unacceptable behaviour is found, we are resolute that it must be rooted out and, where appropriate, officers should face disciplinary proceedings and the full force of the law.’