A Moray chef has been put on the sex offenders’ register after a “prank” on a colleague went wrong.
Gordon Morrison said he only planted his phone in the toilets to secretly capture a male co-worker with a “large derriere”.
But the 40-year-old ended up filming a female colleague.
Yesterday, he narrowly avoided a prison sentence when he appeared at Elgin Sheriff Court, and was instead placed on the sex offenders register for three years.
The court heard that, when quizzed by police officers, the father-of-three admitted to pulling the same “practical joke” on one of his wife’s relations just months earlier.
Morrison worked at Gordon Castle’s Walled Garden Cafe, in Fochabers, when the incident happened on November 17, 2015.
His solicitor, Matthew O’Neill acknowledged the offence was a sexual one but said its intent was “based more on humiliation than gratification”.
He said: “In the kitchen there was banter between my client and other chefs in relation to the large derriere which was perhaps possessed by a male working there.
“He took the foolish decision to try and continue this by placing his mobile phone, with the camera on, in the staff bathroom.
“He had not intended to capture the female who ended up using the bathroom, it had been set up in that fashion because he was looking to humiliate someone.”
The victim, then aged 22, discovered the phone and police were later called in.
When officers interviewed Morrison, they asked him whether he had ever committed any similar offences.
Mr O’Neill said it was to his client’s “credit” that he divulged secretly taping a relative of his wife’s in the bathroom of their family home earlier that year in another prank.
Morrison admitted recording a fellow employee during a private act, having operated equipment with the intention of observing another person.
He also admitted operating equipment to enable himself to observe an older woman during a private act, by concealing a recording device in a bathroom, between May and September 2015.
Morrison, of Anderson Drive, Buckie, was put on a supervision order for three years, during which time he will also be on the sex offenders register. He will also have to remain at home between 7pm and 7am for the next 180 days.
