Pervert ex-Army surveillance officer from Hartlepool jailed for recording unsuspecting female with hidden camera

Former Army officer Peter Cartwright installed the camera to record the victim a number of times without her knowledge for his own sick kicks.

He was arrested after the stunned victim discovered it leaving her feeling sickened, Teesside Crown Court heard.

Prosecutor Nigel Soppitt said she found it after she spotted a red light and shouted out: “Why is there a camera [here]?”

Cartwright, 44, tried to suggest he had been trying to recreate the same thrill from his former surveillance activities in the Army.

But the judge strongly rejected that.

Cartwright initially claimed it was the first time he had hidden the camera to spy on the female.

But he later confessed he had done it several times.

The victim said she felt physically sick upon finding it adding: “It was the nastiest shock I’ve ever had in my life.”

The court heard it has had a major effect on her and her family with the victim even feeling suicidal and said she still has nightmares about it.

Her partner said she had changed from being a bubbly outgoing person previously.

Cartwright, of Oxford Road, Hartlepool, pleaded guilty to a single count of voyeurism at Teesside Magistrates Court last month.

His lawyer Rod Hunt urged Judge Howard Crowson to draw back from immediate prison citing Cartwright’s lack of previous convictions and 22 years’ military service.

Mr Hunt said: “Your Honour is not dealing with a man who is a habitual attender of these premises.

"He was obviously a very good soldier indeed. Sometimes that’s eclipsed by an act such as this.”

But Judge Crowson told Cartwright: “I’m afraid I do take the view that this type of offence is so serious and the harm caused is so grave that the only way I can appropriately punish you is by immediate custody.”

The judge said he did not believe Cartwright had shown real remorse adding: “Your claim that this was done to recreate the thrill of your time as an Army surveillance officer is unbelievable and I reject it.”

Cartwright was jailed for eight months and will be on the sex offenders register for 10 years.