Pete Tomlinson, 56, became a trusted friend of the mum after moving in next door 15 years ago – but was caught watching her naked after she installed internal security cameras in her home
A single mum-of-two became best friends with a neighbour before realising he’d been filming her entire family naked for several months.
Pete Tomlinson, 56, became a trusted friend of the mum after moving in next door 15 years ago. He was well liked amongst the local community, with fellow neighbours having taken pity on him after he told them he’d been jailed for being caught with an underage girl he believed was of age. His imprisonment led to the separation from his ex and daughter, and also meant he had difficulty finding work. Pete, who later entered into a relationship with a 15-year-old girl with whom he had two sons, was offered odd DIY jobs by supporting neighbours – such as painting, construction and gardening – for little pay.
The victim, who has chosen to remain anonymous, grew close enough with Pete that she trusted him with a house key to look after her pets while the family were away. Her sons, aged 10 and 11, would also often play with Pete’s children. But after noticing a wad of cash had gone missing from her home, she asked the 56-year-old to install internal security cameras for her.
A year in, the mum decided to roll the tapes after the app connected to the security sytem appeared to glitch. As she watched on, she saw Pete peering back at her through the lens, and immediately assumed he was watching her. She said: “I whispered to my boys: ‘Don’t walk around the house naked, just whisper, shut the bathroom door – Pete is watching us’.”
She confided in another neighbour, who said they’d seen Pete “snooping around on top of the wardrobe” but assumed she’d given him an odd job to do. The mum responded: “It’s worse than that, I think he’s watching us.”
She then installed hidden cameras and told Pete she was going out one night – but instead went to a hotel to watch him live, where she caught him unplugging the cameras and pocketing the SD cards. She said: “I pretended to be normal with him which was really hard because I was panicking. What if he finds out about the cameras and retaliates? At this point I don’t know who he is anymore. He’s broken my trust, he’s not who I thought he was, he was family, but he’s not anymore. He’s stolen from me and he’s watching us secretly.”
Police found eight months worth of footage – with 2,025 videos and photos of the mum naked, partially dressed, and sitting on the toilet. Tomlinson, pleaded guilty to a charge of unauthorised access to computer material as an alternative to his initial charge of voyeurism. He was also found to have a past child sex conviction from 2003, which did not match the story he originally told pitying neighbours. Tomlinson was instead jailed for sexually abusing his own daughter from the age of eight.
The mum said: “Why was he allowed to live so close to us when we all have children on this street? He hasn’t learnt his lesson. He is a creep. I don’t think women and children are safe to be around him.”
“He has over 2,000 photos of me. Photos of me naked, of me dressing, of me on the toilet.” Despite a 10-year restraining order, Pete is apparently living in a hostel around the corner from his victim. She said: “He is very good at what he does. “Even after having conflict with another neighbour he got back on good terms with her by cutting her grass while she was away at work.
“Her garden would be all done up, bins brought in, and you know, you end up appreciating that help. My worry is, he’s going to live somewhere else and do it all over again. He’ll find the next vulnerable woman and offer help, knowing she’ll appreciate it. I never in a million years thought someone would take the SD card from your security camera, download the footage, and then put it back like you never knew – would take him 10 minutes, if that. He is a predator.”
After pleading guilty, Tomlinson was handed a 16-month prison term, suspended for two years. Recorder Sacha Ackland said: “It is not a sex offence but the offence clearly had a sexual motive. There were over 2,000 images of the victim naked, and partially-dressed. She trusted you and your actions abused that trust. In her victim impact statement she talks about her anxiety and how she feels unsafe in her own home. She says she is now scared and in her own words ‘she feels destroyed’.”
Nick Walsh, mitigation, said his client wasn’t living in the area when the offence surfaced two years ago. He said Tomlinson can now have access to his two children through social services. Walsh said: “He knows it was a deliberate decision to take the SD card and his actions have turned his life and the lives of his family upside down.”
As part of his suspended sentence, Tomlinson was ordered to attend 40 rehabilitation sessions and was handed a 10-year restraining order which requires him to cease all contact with the victim.
