LETHBRIDGE — A southern Alberta man has admitted he secretly watched his adopted teenage daughter in her bedroom, but he says he didn’t have any sexual motives.
A court in Lethbridge heard the girl, who was 17 at the time, discovered a tiny pinhole camera had been installed on a TV in her bedroom.
Her 48-year-old father pleaded guilty to voyeurism and was put on probation for one year.
The man said he planted the camera, which faced the girl’s bed, to make sure her boyfriend didn’t take advantage of her.
The names of the victim and the accused are protected by a publication ban.
Police found no evidence of any recorded images or video from the secret camera.
Voyeurism involves spying on someone in a private place where the person might be reasonably expected to be naked.
Defence lawyer Art Larsen admitted to Judge Eric Brooks that his client had “overstepped the boundaries grossly” and had “grossly invaded her privacy” in an overzealous attempt to monitor her activities.
Brooks agreed and went even further when he admonished the father: “To say this was stupid would be an understatement.”
The Crown and the defence worked out a plea bargain after the victim, who is now an adult, failed to show up Tuesday to testify at a preliminary hearing. Court heard that the father and his adopted daughter reconciled not long after she filed a complaint with police and that she continues to live with him.
Court was told the man adopted the girl in 2006 while he was in a relationship with her mother. The couple later separated, but the girl opted to continue living with her adoptive father.