Woman ordered to remove CCTV she installed to catch pervert because it breaches his privacy

A woman from Plymouth, Devon, who installed CCTV after a naked man was spotted performing sex acts in her garden has been ordered to take it down as it breaches his privacy. Devika Devereux, 38, was advised by police to put up the camera after a male broke into her back yard and masturbated in front of her family. She had one fitted on the outside of her first floor flat and says as it does not monitor anything beyond her own back yard.



But Devika says she has been told by the building's owners it is not allowed in case it shows part of a communal garden. She's been told if the man was in the communal garden at the time it would break privacy laws to film him. Devika said: "I was in bed around 10.15pm and I heard what I thought was my son's television. I shouted to him to turn it down and he must have heard the same thing. I flew into my son's room and the man was watching porn on his mobile phone by the trampoline in my garden. The people who live in the flat downstairs had their light on and you could see everything.

"He was totally naked. It was shock horror, just disgraceful. My jaw was hanging wide open and I could not believe what I was witnessing." Devika says she was advised by the police to install the device after her and her son, 15, twice witnessed the male. She said: "I was advised by the police to get a mini camera with a sensor light to deter him from coming back in. The camera is directed at my back garden, not anywhere else. It won't film anyone who is not in my garden." Devika claims that the building's committee Surf View Limited, has written to her letting agents ordering her to take it down and saying if she did not, they would send someone to do the job.



She said: "They said they're responsible for the render to the building on the outside even though my landlord gave me permission to put it up. They don't mind people putting up house number and plant pots, but they've told me I have to take my camera down even though they know what's happened. My son is having panic attacks because of it and I've been getting more and more anxious. I just want the man to stay out of our garden. I've spent a lot of money on keeping him out. I've had to buy padlocks and a sensor camera. I've got two coded padlocks, which cost £70 and the camera cost £100 and an extra £100 to have it fitted." Directors from Surf View Ltd have declined to comment. A spokesman for Devon and Cornwall Police said an investigation into the incidents is underway.