A PAEDOPHILE filmed children in their swimwear and took videos of women and girls in their underwear through their windows.
Alexander Kerr filmed his victims moving from room to room in their own homes, and zoomed in on children on his camera.
He admitted to police officers that he had performed sex acts to the videos – one of which included a girl changing out of her school uniform.
Kerr, now of Rushmore Drive, Widnes, had also been accessing child sex abuse photographs and videos online for more than 20 years.
The 62-year-old appeared before Liverpool Crown Court on Thursday for 17 offences, all of which he plead guilty to.
These include two counts of voyeurism, two counts of taking indecent images of children, nine counts of making indecent images of children, two counts of possessing indecent images of children, possessing extreme pornographic images, and possessing prohibited images of children.
Prosecuting, Susanne Payne said Kerr’s sick offending came to light when Cheshire Police received information that indecent images of children had been downloaded from an address in Runcorn – which was found to be Kerr’s.
Police attended and arrested Kerr and seized 11 electronic devices.
Ms Payne said that six of these devices were found to have a large number of indecent images of children on. There were more than 1,600, including ones from category A – the most severe.
The court heard how an SD card was removed from Kerr’s camera which showed sick images he had taken in the Halton area.
His first victim was aged 10 at the time the photographs were taken and was in swimwear outside. There were 42 pictures in total, 11 of which Ms Payne said were all focused on her ‘genital area and backside’.
The second victim was another child. This time, the pervert had filmed her through the windows of her own home, with the camera ‘zoomed into her bedroom from a significant distance’. There were three separate videos on three separate occasions of the victim changing out of her school uniform.
The third victim was a woman in her underwear who Kerr had videoed through the windows of her own home. He had videoed her moving from room to room at different times.
Following these discoveries, Kerr was further arrested for voyeurism offences.
Ms Payne said a further 12 devices were seized and it was apparent that further offences of voyeurism had taken place since his arrest.
Kerr had videoed another women wearing lingerie while she was getting changed – again through the windows of her home.
A further 1,100 indecent images and videos of children were recovered. These again included material of the most severe category.
In a police interview, Kerr accepted he had a sexual interest in children but said he ‘accidentally recorded the voyeurism’.
He admitted performing sex acts to the footage he had recorded.
Various victim impact statements were read to the court. In these, it was heard how one of the victim’s world ‘came crashing down’ when she found out what had happened. She said she could not sleep for days and her anxiety has since been through the roof.
Another victim, who was a child at the time she was recorded, said: “It destroyed my world forever.
“I have been struggling mentally ever since.
“My once happy childhood has now been taken by these bad memories and thoughts.”
The court heard how another victim feels ‘absolutely and disgusted’ by Kerr’s offending and that she has been left feeling anxious and depressed since she found out what had happened.
Defending, Jeremy Rawson said how his client has taken significant steps to address his behaviour – including seeking psychological intervention.
He said Kerr has no previous convictions and ‘there is remorse’.
Before passing sentence, Judge Simon Medland said: “For more than a 20-year period, you were accessing vast numbers of disgusting images and videos of children being sexually abused.
“Children are entitled to be left alone and to be treated as children and not to be treated as objects and sexually abused by dirty minded people.”
Kerr was handed 32 months behind bars.
He is also subjected to sex offender notification requirements for life as well as a sexual harm prevention order.
And indefinite restraining orders were made against all of Kerr’s victims.
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