A PERVERT installed a covert camera inside a toilet and downloaded the footage on his computer.
Peter Thomas, of Chaddesden, also downloaded indecent movies of teenage girls from the internet.
The 31-year-old was told to attend a community sex offenders' programme after he admitted yesterday at Derby Crown Court three counts of voyeurism and six charges of having indecent images.
The court heard he had placed a pen, which had a camera hidden inside, in the bathroom – of which the location cannot be revealed for legal reasons.
He told police: "I recorded the images because I could – I thought it would be interesting."
The court was told he knew his activities were becoming a problem. He said he wanted help and was suicidal.
It heard that Thomas had downloaded all the indecent movies – two of category one, 17 of category two and three of category four (the most extreme is category five) – on February 6 last year.
Prosecutor Andrew Vout said: "This was downloaded together with other pornography containing young adult females."
Recorder Shaun Smith QC said downloading indecent images of children was "disgusting and depraved".
He said: "People who are participating in the images have no choice. You're looking at them and thinking I'm just looking at them."
But, he said, the images were the end product and children were being abused.
"And society are getting sick of that happening – quite rightly," said Recorder Smith.
He said locking up Thomas, now of Birling Close, Nottingham, for a short period of time without any help would not do any good for him or the public and a more constructive course would be to put him on a three-year community order.
Thomas will be supervised by the probation service, must attend a sex offenders' programme and pay £200 costs. He must sign the sex offenders' register for five years.
