WHAT A HEEL: Prison Term For Peeping Tom
"Peeping Tom Landlord" Thomas Daley, 47, installed more than 50 hidden cameras and audio equipment in a dozen rental units, invading the privacy of 30 female tenants. After Daley pleaded guilty to invasion of privacy, interception of oral communications and possessing an electronic device for the surreptitious interception of oral communications, Montgomery County Judge William Furber Jr. handed down a sentence of four-to-10-years in a state correctional facility, followed by four years' probation. He also ordered Daley to undergo “intensive sexual counseling" before he can be paroled.
According to Assistant District Attorney John Gradel, Daley “went out of his way” to rent the rigged apartments to “young, attractive females,” but Daley’s attorney, Timothy Woodward, explained that his client became a Peeping Tom because he was more of a gib than a Tomcat, reports The (Pottstown, PA) Mercury:
"This is a man who is so socially inept he's never even kissed a girl, never been on a date. This voyeurism, this looking at the tapes, was his only form of social interaction," Woodward said. "He was incapable of socially interacting, for whatever reason, and that's what led to his actions. He is a sad, pathetic individual." …
Some of the cameras were activated when a tenant turned on the lights while Daley also could turn cameras on and off from his home computer, authorities alleged. Some of the cameras recorded on a VHS system in the basement while other digital cameras fed a digital video recorder, also in the basement. In addition to being able to record activities in the apartments, Daley said he could access the DVR system from his home computer and observe a live feed and his tenants' personal activities in real time from his Phoenixville home, according to authorities.
Police first learned about Daley's activities in September 2008, when one of the Stanbridge Street tenants contacted 911 to report she had found a hidden camera behind a bathroom mirror in her apartment.
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