A SINGLE mum-of-two was best friends with her neighbour until she realised he’d secretly been filming the whole family naked from inside her home.
Pete Tomlinson, 56, moved in next door to his future victim 15 years ago, harbouring a chilling secret.
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He told locals he’d been caught with an underage girl he met at a club, who he believed was of age.
It resulted in his imprisonment, separation from his ex and daughter and ongoing struggle to find work.
Neighbours took pity on Pete, offering him odd DIY jobs such as painting, construction and gardening for little pay.
As time went on, Pete became a trusted local handyman and friend.
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He even started a relationship with a local girl Emily, then 15, who he had two sons with.
The victim, a single mum-of-two, who wished to remain anonymous, met Pete 15 years ago while living with her parents.
They became close friends.
Her two sons, aged 10 and 11, often spent time with Pete’s children.
Pete even had a house key so he could look after the family’s pets while they were away.
However, after realising a stash of cash had disappeared from her house, the mum-of-two asked Pete to install internal security cameras.
A year later, in 2023, suspicions grew when the app which played live footage from her home started to play up.
Pete was one of the few people who had access to her home.
She rolled the tapes and saw Pete peering back at her through the lens.
Confused as to what he was doing, she assumed Pete was watching her.
She said: “I whispered to my boys: ‘Don’t walk around the house naked, just whisper, shut the bathroom door – Pete is watching us’.”
After discussing it with another neighbour, they confirmed they’d seen Pete “snooping around on top of the wardrobe.”
They assumed she’d given him a job to do, to which she replied: “It’s worse than that, I think he’s watching us.”
Disappointed with the treatment from police, the mum-of-two took matters into her own hands and installed hidden cameras.
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She decided to tell Pete she was heading out one night, little did he know she would be watching him live from a hotel.
She said: “I pretended to be normal with him which was really hard because I was panicking.”
“What if he finds out about the cameras and retaliates?
“At this point I don’t know who he is anymore.
“He’s broken my trust, he’s not who I thought he was, he was family, but he’s not anymore.
“He’s stolen from me and he’s watching us secretly.”
Horrified, she found Pete unplugging the cameras and pocketing the SD cards.
Officers find 2,000 videos and photos
Police discovered eight months worth of footage entailing 2,025 videos and photos of the mum naked, partially dressed, and sitting on the toilet.
The mum-of-two believes he was taking the footage while she was away on holiday or when she had him over to do a DIY job.
Tomlinson, pleaded guilty to a charge of unauthorised access to computer material as an alternative to voyeurism, which is what he was initially charged with.
He also has a past child sex conviction from 2003.
This past child sex conviction was not in accordance with the story he originally told neighbours.
Instead, he had previously been to prison for sexually abusing his own daughter from the age of eight years old, the mum-of-two relayed.
She questioned: “Why was he allowed to live so close to us when we all have children on this street?
“He hasn’t learnt his lesson. He is a creep. I don’t think women and children are safe to be around him.”
“He has over 2,000 photos of me.
“Photos of me naked, of me dressing, of me on the toilet.”
Although a 10-year restraining order was established, Pete is apparently living in a hostel just down the road from his victim.
She said: “He is very good at what he does.
“Even after having conflict with another neighbour he got back on good terms with her by cutting her grass while she was away at work.
“Her garden would be all done up, bins brought in, and you know, you end up appreciating that help.
“My worry is, he’s going to live somewhere else and do it all over again.
“He’ll find the next vulnerable woman and offer help, knowing she’ll appreciate it.
“I never in a million years thought someone would take the SD card from your security camera, download the footage, and then put it back like you never knew – would take him 10 minutes, if that.
“He is a predator.”
The sentencing
A sentencing hearing at Nottingham Crown Court learned how the defendant and victim were neighbours in Nottingham where her parents also lived.
After pleading guilty, Tomlinson was handed a 16-month prison term, suspended for two years.
Recorder Sacha Ackland said: “It is not a sex offence but the offence clearly had a sexual motive.
“There were over 2,000 images of the victim naked, and partially-dressed.
“She trusted you and your actions abused that trust.
“In her victim impact statement she talks about her anxiety and how she feels unsafe in her own home.
“She says she is now scared and in her own words ‘she feels destroyed’.”
Nick Walsh, mitigation, said his client had not lived in the area since the offence came to light two years ago.
He said Tomlinson now only has access to his two children through social services.
The defence barrister said: “He knows it was a deliberate decision to take the SD card and his actions have turned his life and the lives of his family upside down.”
As part of the suspended sentence order, the judge ordered him to attend 40 rehabilitation sessions and a programme designed to address his offending.
He was also handed a 10-year restraining order and told not to contact the defendant or go near to the area in which she lives, Nottinghamshire Live reported.
Legal consequences of non-consensual recording
Non-consensual recording in private spaces violates multiple UK laws, including the Human Rights Act 1998 and Data Protection Act 2018.
The UK legal system imposes strict penalties for non-consensual recording through both criminal prosecution and civil litigation.
Criminal offenses
Serious breaches under various acts:
- Voyeuristic recording: Maximum 10 years.
- Phone interception: 2-5 years imprisonment.
- Harassment involving voice recording: Unlimited fine.
- Criminal Justice Act 2003: Up to 2 years imprisonment.
Civil remedies
Available legal actions include:
- Compensation claims.
- Data protection violations.
- Conversation privacy breaches.
- Deletion orders for existing footage.
- Injunctions to stop recording/sharing.
Potential penalties
Courts can impose:
- Restraining orders.
- Employer penalties.
- Costs against perpetrator.
- Fines up to £500,000 (ICO).
- Damages for emotional distress.
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