Studio Photographer Secretly Filmed Clients with Hidden Camera Disguised as Alarm Clock
A professional photographer has been convicted for using a hidden camera, disguised as an alarm clock, to secretly film clients at his studios.
On Friday, professional photographer David Glover, who worked at studios across the south of the U.K., was charged with six counts of voyeurism for filming six clients with the hidden camera — including a pregnant woman who was having a maternity photo shoot.
All the women were filmed while changing for their photo shoots, completely unaware of the hidden camera disguised as an alarm clock.
According to reports, Glover was sentenced at Cambridge Crown Court, U.K., to a year and three months in prison, suspended for two years (meaning that jail time isn’t imposed unless conditions are breached.)
As part of his sentence, Glover was ordered to abide by a sexual harm prevention order which includes a ban on providing photography services to women, owning secret cameras, and filming women in private without consent.
Glover was previously jailed in 2023 (but since released) for secretly filming 103 women in the changing rooms of three different photography studios as well as his own home. But the photographer was convicted again last week after new victims came forward.
Glover was first caught after a client’s partner noticed something strange about an alarm clock in a changing room of a photography studio.
According to the local news outlet Peterborough Telegraph, the victim felt too scared and embarrassed to come forward initially, but eventually shared her findings with police years later when a friend encouraged her to do so.
Following an investigation, Cambridgeshire Police found that Glover’s alarm clock contained a hidden camera. There were also 970 videos that Glover stored on a removable hard drive.
Glover was later arrested but claimed he was interested in covert filming and didn’t realize that it was illegal.
‘Never Working as a Photographer Again’
In 2023, he pleaded guilty to five counts of voyeurism — relating to 31 different victims — and was handed one year and eight months in prison. But Glover did not admit the sixth count at court, relating to voyeurism against the 72 unidentified victims found on videos seized from his home.
But, following Glover’s trial in 2023, more victims came forward and the police were contacted by more than 60 women who had been the photographer’s clients.By comparing images provided by the women who came forward with the videos seized from Glover, police ruled out most as victims but identified six individuals who had been filmed.
“I would like to praise all Glover’s victims — the original victims and the new ones — for their courage in coming forward. The lengths Glover went to in order to covertly film women without their consent is sickening,” Detective Constable Pete Wise of the Cambridgeshire Constabulary says.
The police offer says that the Sexual Harm Prevention Order issued to Glover last week will prevent him from working as a photographer again.
“I am glad that after five years of investigating Glover and gathering all the evidence, including watching more than 900 covert videos and cross-referencing these with women who came forward, Glover has faced further justice for what he did,” Detective Constable Wise adds.
“Glover has now been released from his 2023 prison sentence and I hope this new conviction gives him time to reflect on his behaviour. He will be monitored closely and sent back to prison if he reoffends, and we are pleased our suggested SHPO has been granted which effectively stops him from working as a photographer.”
