An Aberdeen foster parent has been jailed after he was caught secretly filming young girls with a hidden spy camera.
Alan Moir appeared in the dock at Aberdeen Sheriff Court where he admitted hoarding a collection of voyeuristic videos and images of children on his personal devices for more than nine years.
The court heard Moir, 62, used a secret “spy cam” to record three young girls in varying stages of undress and while they were unaware they were being filmed.
One of the children filmed by Moir was only four years old when he first started recording her.
Images of a fourth girl, aged 10, were also found on Moir’s devices.
Sheriff Ian Wallace jailed him for just under two years and placed on the sex offenders register for a decade.
Girl found hidden spy cam in bedroom
Fiscal depute Callum Gordon told the court that one of the girls was on Moir’s mobile phone looking through holiday pictures when she came across an image of herself wearing a t-shirt and shorts.
The teenager did not understand why it was on Moir’s phone and knew she had not agreed to the photo being taken.
At this time, the girl did not confront Moir about the picture.
However, months later, she was once again on his phone and discovered further a photograph and two videos of herself wearing a sports bra and leggings.
She did not know why Moir had these videos and had not consented to them.
When the girl challenged him about it, Moir stated that he had been filming her because she was being “cheeky”.
Spy cam discovered
Some months later, the teenager was sitting on her bed drying her hair after having a shower, when she saw a small black device on top of a chest of drawers, concealed under a set of trousers.
When she picked it up, it looked like a charging bank and was about the size of a mobile phone.
The teenager called a few friends for advice and Googled the serial number of the device, which showed it was a “spy cam”.
The girl’s friends told her to call the police.
She was hesitant about calling the police, so she instead called her social worker and advised her about her suspicions.
The social worker notified her manager, and both went to meet the teenager, who showed them the device.
Moir quizzed over recording device
When they asked Moir about it, he initially claimed it was a phone charger and said he had accidentally left it in the girl’s room when he was there fixing a door handle.
The teenager challenged this and showed Moir the Google search for the device.
Moir then changed his story and claimed he had put it there because he suspected the girl of having brought boyfriends into her room.
A support worker was called, who arrived and immediately instructed the social worker to seize the device.
Further conversations were had with Moir, who continued to claim he had put the camera there to ensure the teenager wasn’t bringing boys back.
Police contacted
The support worker quizzed Moir on when he had placed the camera on top of the wardrobe and when he had purchased it.
He claimed he had bought it recently and hadn’t watched the footage of it.
Moir also claimed there were no other devices in the house, which was challenged by his wife.
His wife then told Moir he would have to leave the house, which he did, taking memory banks, a laptop and computer equipment.
A few days later, the police were contacted.
Soon after, a search warrant was executed at Moir’s address, with various devices being seized and a preliminary examination finding images that were of concern.
Footage of three more girls found
Moir was arrested by police as he was due to fly offshore for work and was interviewed at Kittybrewster Police Station.
He provided only “no comment” responses and was thereafter cautioned and charged.
A cybercrime analysis of Moir’s devices found nine videos of a second girl on a MacBook and a portable hard drive.
Another 11 videos were found on the MacBook and a USB of the girl who had found the secret “spy cam”.
One video of a third girl was found on a portable hard drive device.
A further 16 images of a fourth girl, aged just 10 in some of the pictures, were found on a hard drive and a portable hard drive.
In the dock, Moir pleaded guilty to three charges of recording children and teenage girls without their knowledge or consent and in situations they would have considered private.
He admitted to a fourth charge of being in possession of indecent images of children.
Sheriff Ian Wallace jailed Moir, of Crown Street, Aberdeen, for a total of 21 months and placed him on the sex offenders register for ten years.
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