SCENE: Wavelengths at Nelson
A father who filmed young girls getting changed at an East Lancashire swimming pool — and left parents “horrified” — has been jailed for 18 months.
Father-of-two Andrew Blundell, 47, was caught out when an 11-year-old girl spotted a “hairy arm” with a camera phone reaching underneath her cubicle wall at Nelson’s Wavelengths Centre, Burnley Crown Court was told.
She shouted for her 15-year-old sister, who also spotted the camera and shouted “Paedo” at the man next door, the court heard.
Blundell, then of Warren Drive, Bacup, moved to another cubicle but was detained by lifeguards, who called in Lancashire Constabulary.
Further checks of his camera phone and other technology showed that he had been filming children without their knowledge at the Leeds Road centre for around six months.
And when a computer tower at his home was analysed, four images of child pornography were also discovered, the court heard.
Blundell, now of Shellfield Road, Southport, admitted five offences of voyeurism and two charges of possession of indecent images.
Jailing him, Judge Jonathan Gibson said: “The children who were getting changed would have been shocked to find you filming them and their parents would have been horrified when they found out.
“The children must have felt violated as a result.”
Stephen Parker, prosecuting, said the defendant had started attending Wavelengths with his family.
But it was discovered that he took far longer to get ready after their swim, and he was leaving the pool earlier than the rest.
Mr Parker said that when Blundell’s phone was examined there were clips of girls in various states of undress.
The films had clearly been taken in the changing rooms at Wavelengths.
And they had clearly been taken without the knowledge of the youngsters.
Joanna Rodikis, defending, said her client had effectively lost everything, including his marriage and his employment as an engineer, as a result of the court proceedings.
She told the court that there had been no physical touching and Blundell accepted that he had a problem which he had begun to address through counselling.
Blundell was jailed for three months in November, 1996 after admitting an indecent-assault charge.
Report Courtesy PETE MAGILL (thisislancashire)
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