A man secretly filmed a young girl undressing in the changing rooms of a holiday park swimming pool.
Paul Griffiths used his mobile phone to record the child from the neighbouring cubicle in the changing area.
The recording - which runs to more than two-and-a-half minutes - was later found by the 50-year-old’s wife when she used his tablet computer. The identity of the child in the footage has never been established.
Swansea Crown Court heard that as part of their investigation police seized other electronic devices - including a miniature camera - from Griffiths but he refused to reveal the PINs or passwords for them, and before they could be examined they were damaged in a flood while being held in storage.
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James Hartson, prosecuting, said the footage came to light in December 2019 when Griffiths' wife picked up his Acer tablet with the intention of creating an album of family photos. On the device she found a film of some two minutes and 38 seconds in length showing a girl who appeared to be between the ages of seven and 11 undressing in a changing room cubicle. At one stage the defendant's face could be seen in the footage.
The court heard she reported the matter to the police the following day, and the defendant was arrested later that evening. Officers seized a number of electronic devices from the home address but the defendant refused to disclose the PIN codes. In his subsequent interview Griffiths answered "no comment" to most questions, and gave a prepared statement in which he denied ever intentionally filming a child.
The video was recorded at the popular Doniford Bay holiday park in Somerset on an unknown date between 2016 and 2019. The girl in the footage has never been identified.
The prosecutor said a number of electronic devices were seized by police from the defendant’s house when he was arrested, including a miniature camera, but they had not been examined - while being held in a police storage unit they were damaged by flood water during Storm Dennis in February 2020.
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Paul Malcolm Griffiths, of Western Avenue, Sandfields, Port Talbot, had previously pleaded guilty to voyeurism and to producing an indecent image of a child when he appeared in the dock for sentencing. He has previous convictions for unrelated offences including theft, criminal damage, taking a vehicle without consent, and driving with excess alcohol.
Ian Wright, for Griffiths, said there was a "positive" pre-sentence report on the defendant. He said there was no suggestion of the image found on the tablet having been shared and no evidence of any related internet searches, and he pointed to the delay in the case - while the defendant was interviewed in December 2019 it was not until October 2021 that he was charged via postal requisition. The barrister said his client was an industrious man who had worked his whole adult life, and he noted Griffiths' relationship with his partner had now come to an end.
With discounts for his guilty pleas Griffiths was sentenced to nine months in prison suspended for two years, and was ordered to complete a rehabilitation course. He will be on the sex offenders register for the next 10 years.
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