A FORMER police photographer who sexually abused two sisters, took indecent photos of them and spied on a third victim, has been given a three year probation order.
Imposing the order on 62-year-old William McConnell at Newry Crown Court, Judge Gordon Kerr QC said the alternative was to jail him for a year but that would result in less supervision.
He warned McConnell, from Church Square in Sion Mills, however that if he breached the order he would be brought back to court to have the 12 month sentence imposed.
McConnell was sentenced for the crimes which occurred between 2000 and 2015.
The charges included voyeurism, indecent assault and possessing an indecent photograph of a child.
McConnell, who is an ex-soldier, was placed on the sex offenders register for five years.
He also had restraining orders put in place in relation to his three victims.
At an earlier hearing McConnell entered guilty pleas to two counts of indecent assault, one against each victim and two counts of having indecent images of both girls in February 2015.
On a second separate indictment which McConnell contested as a trial in Belfast Crown Court last January, a jury convicted him of voyeurism on 27 February 2014 when he secretly recorded a woman during a glamour photo.
The jury heard the victim give evidence that McConnell came to her home for a photo-shoot, some of which were “glamour”shots that exposed her cleavage and also parts of her breasts.
A year after posing for the images however, police told her they had uncovered a video of the shoot which McConnell has taken in secret.
It was the Crown case however that McConnell secretly recorded the woman on a second camera for the purposes of sexual gratification.
Giving evidence on his own behalf, McConnell denied deliberately recording the unsuspecting woman during the photoshoot.
When asked if he derived any sexual gratification, McConnell claimed said he felt “no difference between photographing her and photographing an anthill.”
Despite his denials, the jury convicted him of voyeurism.
Judge Kerr had heard from prosecuting counsel Fiona O’Kane that the offence was uncovered when one of the two sisters reported to police that McConnell had taken “lots of images of her when she was approximately 15 and during the photo sessions, the defendant indecently touched her breasts,” adding that smiler allegations were made by the victim’s sister.
Summing the case up Judge Kerr said that “in essence, he took advantage...to further his own sexual proclivities” and that in relation to the abuse of the sisters, “it could be said that the offending had an element of grooming.”
He told the court it was conceded by the prosecution that the inappropriate touching “was at the lower end of the scale” for indecent assault.
Turning to aggravating factors, Judge Kerr said “there’s more than one victim, the offending was relayed over a protracted period of time and the defendant was abusing a professional relationship with the victims.”
The victims had filed impact statements and the judge said it was clear that McConnell’s offences has had “serious effects” on them.
