Restraining order for voyeur who used mirror on a stick to spy on naked woman

A mirror on a stick and a smartphone were dangled in front of a naked woman in bed by a voyeur. Magistrates in Stroud, Gloucestershire heard how Andrew Mark Stoodley pointed a mirror on a stick, then a mobile phone with a camera into the woman’s bedroom. Peter Ashby, prosecuting, said it was the latest in a series of events which worried the woman so much that she was about to move out.

“She noticed him over several years on a number of occasions watching her, including her sunbathing in the garden,” said Mr Ashby. “That made her feel ‘freaked out’ in her words and she started to move out. On July 25, 2013 at 10pm she went to her bedroom - there were no curtains in her windows because she was packing to move. She got undressed and was no wearing clothes, before getting in to bed, and went under the duvet. At 10.30pm she noticed something dangling down outside her window. It was a mirror, about the size of an A4 piece of paper.



“It was being moved up and down like a yo yo for 20 minutes. She stayed under the duvet, the mirror went and a mobile telephone was dangled down. That was lit up, as if it was working. She believed she was being recorded. It was hoisted out of view. She got out of bed and hung coats outside her bedroom window. She looked up and saw him standing nearby with a mobile telephone in his hand. She moved out of sight.” Shortly after, Stoodley was arrested and in interview he said over a period of three years he took 100 pictures of her while sunbathing in the garden, said Mr Ashby.

“He described it as a game,” he said. “He felt like he was being invited to look. In police interview he said ‘She is a very beautiful woman and I enjoy looking at her’. Mr Ashby asked the bench for a restraining order to be imposed. Stoodley, 56, of Stonehouse, pleaded guilty to observing a person doing a private act for the purpose obtaining sexual gratification, knowing that person did not consent to being observed. The bench followed the recommendations of the probation report and imposed an 18 month conditional discharge. A restraining order for the same period was imposed. He was ordered to pay £85 towards prosecution costs and a £15 victim surcharge.