Pensioner secretly filmed female tenant in the bathroom

A 68-YEAR-OLD Carlow man who secretly videoed a student while she was using the bathroom when she lived in his house pleaded guilty to a charge of harassment and was sentenced last week when he appeared before the local circuit court.

Martin Culleton, 4 Old Burrin, Burrin Road, Carlow pleaded guilty to an harassment charge at that address on dates between August 2016 and June 2018.

Mr Culleton is already serving several life sentences for very serious crimes and has a long history of offending, Judge Eugene O’Kelly heard.

Detective Garda Joe Callaghan told the court that five video clips were discovered by gardaí when they were investigating Mr Culleton on serious matters and were searching his house. He said that a camera had been secretly installed in the bathroom and that they found five video clips on a memory stick in the house. He told Judge O’Kelly that the woman, who was a student in SETU and was in her 20s at the time, had no idea that she was being filmed.

The court heard that when the woman was informed by gardaí what had happened, she was “extremely embarrassed and ashamed” and that she hadn’t given Mr Culleton permission to film her.

Caroline Latham BL told Judge O’Kelly that her client had personality and behavioural disorders and that, having spent about 20 years in St Dympna’s psychiatric hospital, he had become “somewhat institutionalised”. She continued that Mr Culleton had “very serious” previous convictions and that his history of offending was an aggravating fact. Ms Latham also said that the woman who was filmed had been a student in IT Carlow, now SETU, and called it “a sinister act”.

Ms Latham told Judge O’Kelly that her client apologised for his actions and acknowledged that he shouldn’t have done it.

She also pointed out that, having signed a guilty plea, Mr Culleton had been sent forward to Carlow Circuit Court and that he should be credited for that. She submitted that because her client was already serving several life sentences – which are under appeal – she asked Judge O’Kelly not to impose a consecutive sentence.

Judge O’Kelly said that the filming of the woman “was a shocking invasion of her privacy” and that “she was a young woman who, while attending her toilette, would expect privacy”. He noted that she was filmed using the toilet and showering, as well as undressing and dressing. He continued that the defendant’s “long history of offending” and the fact that the crimes were so serious that he was serving several life sentences were also aggravating factors in the case.

Judge O’Kelly found the case to be on the upper end of the scale of gravity and set a headline sentence of six years, which he reduced to three-and-a-half years after taking into account the defendant’s psychiatric history. He said that it would not be practical to impose a consecutive sentence, given that Mr Culleton was already serving multiple life sentences, and therefore ordered the sentence to be carried out concurrently with the other sentences.