A gang of voyeurs hid in swimming pool changing rooms to secretly film more than 5,000 young women undressing, a court heard.
Adam Dennis, 39, and Robert Morgan, 33, ‘hunted’ teenage girls and created catalogs of their photos to share and trade online.
Dennis even created “profile documents” of his victims using social media and pool club records.
Inner London Crown Court heard the gang spent days hanging around swimming pools in east London and Surrey for more than four years between April 2013 and November 2017.
Their sick videos were only discovered when police raided the home of fellow conspirator Miguel Jose Sainz and were horrified to find thousands of photos on his devices.
Robert Morgan posing with a 21 ball in a cardboard box. The 33-year-old pleaded guilty to voyeurism and taking indecent photos after stalking girls in a swimming pool changing room.
Morgan (pictured) and three conspirators Adam Dennis, Miguel Jose Sainz and Declan Golden secretly filmed more than 5,000 women and shared the footage between them.
The whereabouts of fellow voyeur Sainz are unknown, while another conspirator, Declan Golden, has fled to the United States.
Judge Benedict Kelleher told the two men: “You both became involved in a conspiracy which also involved two other men.
“The objective was to obtain images of women and girls undressing in changing rooms, mainly in swimming pools, then store them, edit them, share them with each other and, in your case, Mr. Dennis , to compare them with other information you had discovered about the women you were photographing.
“The main locations were two public swimming pools.
“It appears that you both regularly traveled to these locations with secret photographic equipment and spent many hours hiding in the locker rooms waiting to photograph women and girls who entered the locker room or adjacent cubicle.
“Obviously, you both put a lot of effort into planning this kind of offense.
“You put a lot of thought and thought into what type of equipment you needed.
“Indeed, you both discussed going with other conspirators, together referring to it as ‘hunting.’
“You, Mr. Dennis, made reference in some discussions with Mr. Golden to the photography of what you described as “OTs,” older teenagers.
“The scale of this case was frankly enormous.
“You both frequently visited locations and took photographs, and this suggests that the prosecution created… 5,000 separate sets of images.
“You, Mr. Dennis, put a tremendous amount of effort into putting them together.
“You could effectively create a profile of each of the women and girls you had photographed for even more depraved satisfaction on your part.”
Dennis was jailed for 22 months while Morgan, who describes himself as a part-time musician and senior webcast producer, was given a 20-month jail sentence suspended for two years.
Prosecutor Kate Temple-Mabe said: “The plot was initially uncovered by police following Mr Sainz’s arrest in March 2017.
“His home address was searched and several devices seized.
“The downloads from these devices are what led police to identify the three co-conspirators.
“They were both arrested on November 22, 2017.
“Devices were seized and downloaded.
“Further evidence came in the form of a USB drive found by agents during the US investigation into Declan Golden.”
“The entire voyeurism plot involves attending public pools, which would be pools that have family or mixed changing rooms.
“These defendants and co-conspirators would enter a locker room at some point during the day and close the door.
“They would have a small hidden camera with them, usually hidden away.
“They would then wait in the cabin until someone, preferably a young woman, entered the cabin next to theirs.”
“While this person was changing, the bag containing a hidden camera was slid partially into the partition, allowing the camera that was set up to record.
“The victim would only see a bag pushed partially between the partition.
“They called this activity among themselves hunting.
“They selected their favorite content, then edited the films they particularly liked into short videos.”
The videos would be “saved for their own private viewing or shared with other conspirators.”
“They were discussing tactics and strategies for getting the footage and even meeting in person to go out and get it together.”
“They discussed a usual interest in something they call ‘OT.’
“This is a reference to older adolescent girls, adolescent girls who were old enough to be post-pubescent but perhaps younger than 18.”
Ms Temple-Mabe read a message sent by Dennis to Golden saying: “I wish I could have seen some of my occupational therapists from my school days as they were back then.
Golden told Mr Dennis: “I have another OT on the lower end of the spectrum if you know what I mean, not really my cup of tea but might be good for trading equipment.
Mr. Golden told Mr. Dennis that it was “kind of exciting to see a whole new side of you, especially one that I have myself.”
“I think it’s because they would be more embarrassed than anyone else.”
Referring to the creation of “profile documents”, Ms Temple-Mabe said: “They searched the personal details and social media accounts of members of the swimming club and put together what they called “documents in profile.”
“Open source images of swimming club members were placed alongside voyeuristic images.
“Conversations in the discovered chats indicate that Mr. Dennis created these documents.
“It was also Mr. Dennis who carried out most of the research into the victims’ profiles on social networks.
“Mr Dennis said he was creating a database of swim club members.
“He made frank comments about enjoying researching his victims on social media.”
Ms Temple-Mabe read a message sent by Dennis saying: “The ones you know who they are, it’s like you have power over them.”
Farrhat Arshad KC, defending Morgan, said his client was a “very vulnerable person” who had been abandoned by his parents.
She said: “His parents had left him to his own devices.
“He had gone to boarding school and then to Brighton University.
“My argument is that he was a very vulnerable person.
“He was alone, he was isolated.
“These men captured and shared voyeuristic images for four and a half years.
“They were at the pools several days a week for hours.
“Not only were the victims captured naked in private moments, but their social media profiles and open source images were scrutinized in detail by the same men who watched and took sexual pleasure from the images.”
James McCrindell, defending Dennis, said: “Immediate custody will result not only in harm to the defendant, which may well be deserved, but also in a significant adverse impact on his wife, but particularly the 19-month-old child , which will only make sense. of the world around them.
Morgan, from Hammersmith, and Dennis, from Littlehampton, west Sussex, both admitted voyeurism and taking indecent photos.
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