Voyeur filmed people using hospital toilet

Voyeur filmed people using hospital toilet

1 June 2016

A VOYEUR who secretly filmed people using a toilet at Downe Hospital has appeared in court.

David George Britton (48), placed a camera on a rubbish bin in a communal toilet at the hospital on October 21 last year, Downpatrick Court heard last Thursday.

The camera had been positioned towards the toilet and had recorded two women and a man as they used the facilities.

Police found male DNA on the camera and conducted some voluntary DNA tests to determine if anyone at the hospital that day had placed the device. 

Britton’s DNA matched that on the camera. He later told police he placed the camera in the toilet “for his own sexual gratification,” the prosecutor said.

A defence barrister said it was “an experimentation” by Britton, rather than “a habit.”

He said the incident has had a serious impact on the personal life of his client, who is originally from New Zealand, and that his job with a health trust may be affected by the conviction.

“It is going to have a huge impact on his employability,” Mr Molloy said, adding that his client was “very much a remorseful man.”

District Judge Greg McCourt said Britton, of Antrim Road, Belfast, had no criminal record before this incident. He said he also recognised the “devastating effect” it has had on his career and family life.

He told Britton: “Your whole life has been badly damaged by this. This was such an amateurish method used that it was almost certain to be discovered.”

The judge ordered Britton to undertake probation for 11 months so that there will be “no repetition of this.”

He added: “You need some supervision in the community and help and assistance and direction.”