LEEDS, UK (5 Apr 2006) -- A SCUBA diving school boss has been found guilty of secretly filming a 13-year-old girl and two women getting undressed in a changing room. One of the women filmed by David Hepworth yesterday branded him "sick" and "disgusting" after a jury convicted him at Leeds Crown Court. Married Hepworth, owner and manager of Leeds-based Bear Divers, used a waterproof dive camera last July to record the trio as they got undressed on separate occasions at his dive centre in Stanningley Road, Armley. He had claimed he was trying to catch thieves but this story was rejected by the jury after a three-day trial. Hepworth, of Lees Hall Road, Thornhill Lees, Dewsbury, had denied three counts of voyeurism by recording another person doing a private act in order to obtain sexual gratification. He will be sentenced at a later date and could be sent to prison. He has no previous convictions. After the case, a 25-year-old woman he filmed as she was naked said: "The court case has been an ordeal and it was humiliating when the tape was played in court. "The fact that he tricked me is the most upsetting thing. He was in a position of trust as a diving instructor and what he did was disgusting. He's obviously quite a sick individual, especially as he filmed a child." | | VERDICT: PADI scuba school owner David Hepworth has been found guilty as charged. His other victim, who is 39, said: "I was shocked, dismayed and appalled by what he did. I hope he won't teach diving again and I really hope the judge sends him to prison." Hepworth is now facing possible expulsion as a member of dive body, the Professional Association of Diving Instructors. His PADI membership and that of Bear Divers was suspended in August last year, which prevented him from conducting PADI courses.
PADI bosses will now consider whether to ban Hepworth from being a member, a spokesman said last night. SOURCE - Yorkshire Post |
