Larne Leisure Centre voyeur avoids jail with combination order
A man who used his phone to record a victim in the shower in a leisure centre changing room has been handed a combination order of probation and community service.
Sentencing Ken Goudie at Ballymena Magistrates Court, District Judge Nigel Broderick told the 58-year-old the combination order was as a “direct alternative” to sending him to jail.
Ordering Goudie to complete 18 months on probation in addition to 100 hours of community service, the judge warned him that any failure to comply or any breach would see the order withdrawn and replaced with a prison sentence.
On the day he was due to go on trial Goudie, from the Carrickburn Road in Carrick, entered a guilty plea to a charge of voyeurism on May 17, 2024.
Opening the facts of the case on Wednesday and with the victim looking on from the public gallery, a prosecuting lawyer told the court how the offence arose from an incident at Larne Leisure Centre.
The victim was in the showers when he noticed Goudie pointing as mobile phone at him. “There was an exchange” between the two men and Goudie tried to run away but the victim caught him and brought him to the foyer of the centre.
When the police arrived, Goudie was still being detained in the foyer of the leisure centre and after taking an account from the victim, they arrested Goudie and seized his mobile phone. During subsequent interviews, Goudie denied the allegations.
The prosecutor told the court that despite the best efforts of the police and even with “extensive forensic examinations,” at no point were the police able to access the phone and nor did Goudie provide its passcode.
She emphasised with the victim not knowing what, if anything, ever became of the images recorded by Goudie, “he is adamant” he did not want the phone to be destroyed but rather, to be held by the police.
Defence counsel Grant Powles told the court Goudie, “wants me to convey, first and foremost, his apologies to the victim for what he has done”.
“He accepts that it’s a serious offence and can only be treated with the utmost disdain by this court,” the barrister conceded, adding that Goudie “said to him that it was a moment of madness.”
Mr Powles further conceded the case passes the threshold for a custodial sentence, but he suggested that given Goudie’s clear record, guilty plea, good victim insight and genuine remorse, it could be dealt with without him going to prison.
During his sentencing remarks, Judge Broderick highlighted that Goudie’s late plea had made the victim’s trauma all the worse, adding that the fact he did not give police access to his phone was an additional aggravating factor.
The fact Goudie refused to co-operate with the police in their attempts to access the phone, “does beg the question” of what else is on the device that Goudie did not want the police to find, said the judge.
He told Goudie that “having given the matter careful consideration, I am persuaded, just on balance, that this may be an appropriate case for a combination order”.
In addition, Goudie was also made the subject of a five-year Sexual Offences Prevention Order and he will have to sign the police Sex Offenders Register for five years.