A ‘FETISH’ for voyeurism led to a Rossendale man installing an iPhone in a bathroom to film young women in the shower, a court heard.

Police also found video clips of children as young as four or five being raped on computer equipment belonging to William Smith, Burnley Crown Court was told.

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The 27-year-old, of Holly Mount, Rawtenstall, confessed to police that he had a ‘fetish’ for voyeurism and insisted he had sought professional help for his problems.

But jailing him for two years, Judge Beverley Lunt said she had been made aware that there were video images lasting between 22 and 35 minutes showing sustained abuse of very young children.

Judge Lunt said: “These images would have caused revulsion in any right-thinking person, but not you.

“You kept them for your own sexual gratification.”

Smith pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to six offences of making indecent images, three charge of possession of indecent images and two offences of voyeurism.

Forty-eight of the images discovered were at the most serious level of depravity, the court heard.

Peter Barr, prosecuting, said the offences came to light after police attended a domestic violence call at Smith’s home.

His then partner told officers that they may well find indecent images of children on his computer hardware.

Part of the seizure showed images recorded on a smartphone of girls, aged between 16 and 18, taken in a bathroom.

Smith was identified personally from some of the footage, with his face captured as he hid the iPhone initially.

Later, one of the victims told police she felt distressed as she could not be sure that the clips taken by Smith had not been shared with other people via the internet.

Jeremy Coleman, defending, said Smith, who had no previous criminal convictions, and one reprimand for drugs possession dating back nine years, had brought shame on himself and his family.

The defendant, who had not been accused of distributing the indecent material, had sought independent help for his addictions to cannabis and pornography, he added.

Smith must sign the sex offenders’ register for 10 years and will be under a sexual harm prevention order for a decade.

limiting internet usage.