TV producer jailed over sex tapes

BBC producer Benjamin Wilkins arrives for sentencing at Inner London Crown Court
12 April 2012

A television producer who secretly filmed himself having sex with five different women has been jailed for eight months.

Inner London Crown Court heard Benjamin Wilkins was caught when his girlfriend found a stash of DVDs in his loft.

Judge Roger Chapple told the 37-year-old he had "betrayed" the trust of his victims.

The judge said the effect on the women that had been filmed had to be considered when sentencing Wilkins.

He added: "No doubt they were wrestling with any number of emotions when they discovered what you had done, one of them being outrage. What you did represents a cruel, selfish betrayal of the trust they put in you."

Wilkins was also ordered to sign the sex offenders register for 10 years.

The court heard he hid one camera in his bathroom and another in the fire alarm directly above the bed in the bedroom of his London flat. They were linked up to his computer hard drive which allowed him to transfer the films to DVD. The films were made over a three-year period from 2005 but Wilkins dismantled the system before his girlfriend, with whom he had a son, moved into the home.

It was when she was moving her belongings into the loft that she found the discs and recognised one of the names on them as an ex-girlfriend of Wilkins. After she watched the DVD, she sent it to the woman involved and they decided to go to the police.

A victim impact statement made by one of the women was read to the court. The woman, who cannot be identified, said she had needed counselling after she found out what he had done. She stated she was too ashamed to tell her family what had happened and said it left her "feeling violated, dirty and sick".

Nicola Kay, defending Wilkins, said he had not distributed the discs which were recorded "purely for Mr Wilkins own gratification" and all the sexual encounters had been consensual. The judge read from a letter Wilkins wrote to his victims in which he admitted "a terrible betrayal of trust". Wilkins pleaded guilty to 11 charges of voyeurism at Camberwell Magistrates' Court earlier this year.

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