A perverted Aberdeen electrician who secretly filmed women in their homes for a decade has been locked up for almost three years.
James Denholm, 34, installed hidden cameras to watch his unsuspecting victims and recorded them undressing and using the toilet.
The depraved voyeur sneaked into one victim’s home undetected for five years, even bringing along a sex doll and dressing it in her clothing, Aberdeen Sheriff Court was told.
Denholm’s disturbing crimes were finally exposed when the woman discovered a recording device and charger under her bed and contacted the police on May 23 2022.
Denholm pled guilty to 11 charges of voyeurism, two of stalking, two of behaving in a threatening or abusive manner, and one of taking, permitting or making indecent images or pseudo-images of children.
Fiscal depute Kirsty Martin said: “The accused had previously been in the complainer’s property on one occasion to assist with electrical work.”
Hard drives, memory cards, mobile phones, laptops and cameras were all seized from Denholm’s home and examined by digital forensic experts.
The woman was identified in various videos and images saved onto SD cards.
“These included images and videos of her taken through a peephole along with images of her parcels, which the complainer had never received, and images of a sex doll wearing her work ID lanyard and clothing, images of the sex doll in underwear which did not belong to the complainer,” Ms Martin explained.
The material was recorded between 12 August 2018 and 23 May 2023 without consent and with the victim “unaware that the accused had been in her property or her bedroom”.
She told officers she felt “violated and unsafe”.
Investigators also uncovered a sick stash of indecent images of children stored on a laptop and three hard drives.
The prosecutor told Sheriff Graham Buchanan that another incriminating video from June 27 2013 – discovered on Denholm’s laptop – showed him setting up a camera “within a public bathroom”.
Ms Martin added: “The video then captures the [two] complainers using the toilet. When police contacted the complainers, they confirmed they had not consented to being filmed.
“Both complainers indicated to police when they were notified of the video that they felt their privacy had been violated and would be cautious and wary in shared public spaces in the future.”
In another charge, a woman was “shocked, upset and felt violated” at learning she was video-recorded without her knowledge or consent on an occasion between February 18 2016 and December 31 2016 when she and Denholm were “engaging in sexual activity” at his home.
Ms Martin told the court that another woman “felt violated and was upset and angry” upon hearing she had also fallen victim to Denholm in the same way on December 30 2016.
“She also stated she was less trusting and concerned about being recorded secretly in the future,” the prosecutor explained.
Couple moved home after repeatedly being stalked by peeping Tom
Videos seized from Denholm revealed he had repeatedly filmed a couple through the window of their bottom-floor flat between May 1 2017 and March 31 2018.
A seventh charge stated that another couple, who were not known to Denholm, were so disturbed by his campaign of stalking that they felt forced to move house.
Ms Martin said: “During the evening of April 30 2020, the complainers were at home within their bedroom. Their blinds were closed, but the window was open.
“The male complainer looked out of the window and saw a male staring at the bedroom window. The male complainer shouted at the man asking what he was doing.
“The male complainer then got dressed and ran out to try and trace the man. Police were contacted but the man was not traced.”
In winter 2020, the couple found footprints outside their bedroom windows on two consecutive days.
Then, on July 14 2021, the female complainer returned home from a night out.
“After about 15 minutes she was getting changed in the spare room and saw a man’s hand on the outside of the bedroom window,” Ms Martin told the court.
“She ran to the window and shouted and the man ran off. The male complainer was in the other bedroom and heard this.”
The pair searched for the culprit and called the police but the offender was not traced at the time.
“In September 2021, the complainers moved house due to concern over these incidents,” the fiscal explained.
Forensic examination of various memory cards and a mobile phone later recovered from Denholm’s property yielded images that linked him to the unsolved incidents.
A young woman, who was only 17 at the time she was first targeted by Denholm, was unknowingly filmed in eight videos.
“The videos were taken through a window and a keyhole. The videos capture the complainer in various states of undress, exposing her breasts and buttocks,” the prosecutor told the court.
Image taken of breastfeeding photo ‘tainted a special memory’
Another woman was recorded in 63 images and videos in her home “wearing her underwear, pyjamas or naked”.
Ms Martin said “she felt it was an invasion of her privacy and she felt scared, anxious and vulnerable”.
In another charge, a 16-minute video was recovered of a complainer who had been filmed through her window as she undressed.
When police contacted the complainer she confirmed she was unaware of the video being taken and had not consented.
Another woman described feeling “shocked, sick and horrified” that Denholm had photographed her lingerie and images inside various photobooks.
Ms Martin added: “These included photos of the complainer breastfeeding and the complainer in a bikini.
“She was particularly alarmed by the photo taken of the image of her breastfeeding and stated it had tainted a special memory.”
‘Violated and fearful’
In another charge, a “violated, upset and angry” woman had been video-recorded without her permission as she engaged in sexual activity with Denholm at his property.
The forensic examination of various memory cards and a mobile phone recovered from Denholm’s home showed him at another victim’s address setting up cameras within the bathroom.
Videos and images showed the victim using the bathroom on various occasions.
Another woman said she felt “violated and fearful” upon learning that Denholm had taken images of her underwear, clothing, drivers licence, ID card and screenshots of her social media accounts in her home while she was away on holiday.
A 16th charge detailed how Denholm had videos of a woman at his home “using the toilet, showering and changing”.
Some of the videos also captured the victim engaging in sexual activity with Denholm.
Footage also showed him setting up the recording device.
‘Peeping Tom a lonely, socially isolated person’
As the troubling details of his crimes were read out in the courtroom, a fidgeting Denholm sat slumped forward in the dock with his head against his arm.
Defence counsel David Moggach described his “peeping Tom” client as a “lonely, socially isolated person” and added that “he’s on the autistic spectrum and has ADHD”.
Mr Moggach explained: “It’s difficult, and I have tried to explore on several occasions with Mr Denholm, what actually caused this to come about, why he did it, what he gained, and the likes.
“He does, I think, find it difficult to articulate his reasons why. Mr Denholm must accept he’s committed serious offences which have been a serious breach of trust.
“I think that is something he’s now, with the assistance of the programme work he’s been exposed to in the last year or so, come to appreciate and realise.”
Speaking about his voyeuristic client’s motivations for the sexual offending, the defence counsel said Denholm had not shared or distributed images or videos of his victims.
Mr Moggach told the sheriff: “It appears as though he perhaps gained more of a high in the implementation of the risk that was involved in doing it than the high he got from viewing the material that he obtained.”
Mr Moggach referred to a social work report on the offender that had suggested rehabilitative programme work with a community order might be more effective than a custodial sentence.
‘A very serious breach of trust’
However, Sheriff Graham Buchanan disagreed.
“I have to look at it from all sides, although your primary focus is on Mr Denholm and how his problems may be addressed, I also have to look at the wider public interest and the need to punish,” Sheriff Buchanan told Mr Moggach.
“I can say, having read the numerous victim impact statements, that most if not all of the victims have suffered quite serious psychological harm.”
The sheriff told Denholm:Â “It’s clear that many of your victims have suffered serious psychological harm as a result of the shock which they experienced when they discovered what you had done.
“Most of these offences involved a very serious breach of trust on your part.
“Given the number and serious nature of the offences which you committed, I’m in no doubt that the only appropriate disposal is one which includes a period of imprisonment.”
Sheriff Buchanan handed Denholm, of Fonthill Avenue, Aberdeen, an extended sentence of five years and two months.
It included locking him up for two years and eight months with a further two years and six months in the community on licence.
Denholm was placed on the sex offenders register for an indefinite period, and banned indefinitely by a non-harassment order from contacting four of his victims.
A Sexual Harm Prevention Order was also imposed on Denholm preventing him from contacting people under the age of 16 unless supervised for a period of seven years.
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