IT expert installed spy cameras in his home to watch teenage house guests use the bathroom

A man who installed spy cameras in his home to watch teenage house guests use the bathroom, get changed and perform intimate acts has been jailed.

Grant Morton also stole private pictures from a girl's phone while charging it from his laptop and nicked images from a woman while he fixed her computer.

Grant Morton also stole private pictures from a girl's phone while charging it from his laptop and nicked images from a woman while he fixed her computer.

The IT expert, 46, then shared some of those indecent photographs with two friends over Skype - but claimed he got no pleasure from the snaps.

Morton was eventually found with a stash of more than 55,000 indecent images when police raided his home, including 125 in the most serious category.

A search of his property also revealed the cameras which were found to be used to film three girls - aged 15 or 16 and 18 at the time.

Morton, of Swindon, Wilts., admitted he would watch the footage and either delete it or save it to watch later.

Hannah Squire, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court police had been alerted to concerns about Morton's relationship with a vulnerable girl then aged 16.

Interviewed after officers visited his home, the married man said indecent images of children would be found on his devices.

Ms Squire said evidence pointed to Morton downloading a number of images from another female friend's computer as he repaired it in 2012 or 2013.

However, he claimed to have got no pleasure from recording the three women or from his stash of indecent pictures.

Ms Squire said: "He referred to it being an adrenaline rush or a thrill in filming people secretly. However, he has accepted that he did get sexual gratification because that is very much part of the voyeurism offences."

One of Morton's victims, aged just 16 when she was filmed on the hidden cameras, said: "He should feel ashamed and disgusted.

"He took advantage of me when I was at my most vulnerable."

The court was told Morton had sent her six emails and, fearing the man would come around to their home, her husband had installed CCTV.

She said in a statement: "He abused my trust."

Morton admitted voyeurism, taking an indecent image of a child, distributing indecent images, having indecent images of a child and an offence under the Computer Misuse Act at the hearing yesterday.

Emma Handslip, defending, said Morton was remorseful for what he had done.

She said: "One of the victims says he should feel shame. He does feel shame.

"He says: 'I am ashamed to see what started out at a very young age looking at normal pornography has snowballed into what it is today'.

"A light has been shone in his face and a mirror put in front of him and he doesn't like what he sees."

The court heard that Morton was of previous good character and supported by his wife and mother-in-law.

He had complied with the stringent terms of a Sexual Risk Order and had approached charity Stop It Now for help to tackle his interest in underage girls.

Disabled Morton was said to be particularly disgusted in himself that he had abused the trust of a woman he had met on a web forum meant to support those with disabilities.

Wearing a suit and tie, Morton kept his head bowed for much of the hearing and could be heard crying in the dock.

Jailing him for three years and one month, Judge Peter Crabtree said: "All of the counts involved raised culpability factors. There is significant planning here.

"You have thought about where to observe your victims, purchased the equipment and set it up.

"These offences are simply too serious for anything other than an immediate custodial sentence."

He will be placed on the sex offenders' register for life and was made subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order banning him from unsupervised contact with girls under-16.