A ‘Peeping Tom’ builder tried to film people using a unisex toilet at a five-star hotel.
Reginaldo Lima, 46, was arrested after a cleaner found his mobile phone hidden in the toilet at the posh Royal Lancaster Hotel in central London.
Police found on his phone covertly filmed videos of a woman showering with her baby, not taken at the hotel, and of him performing a solo sex act.
Brazilian national Lima’s behaviour cost him his marriage, magistrates were told.
He pleaded guilty to two counts of voyeurism at Westminster Magistrates Court.
Clean-shaven Lima, who was kicked out of his marital home in Bromley, south east London, in October after his crimes were exposed, wore a dark jumper and jeans in the dock.
Matt Barrowcliffe, prosecuting, said the offence at the five-star hotel next to Hyde Park happened on October 23rd this year when Lima was working there.
Mr Barrowcliffe said: “Police were called to the Lancaster Hotel in Lancaster Terrace after a cleaner had found a mobile phone in the unisex toilets which had been set up to record.
“That phone belongs to the defendant, who was a contractor there at the time.
“It captures the defendant himself using the toilet. Fortunately the phone is then found within 45 minutes on that occasion.”
Police then found a young mother being covertly filmed showering with her baby in a recording on his phone.
Mr Barrowcliffe said: “The complainant is recorded in her own home.
“The recording is made upside down, the camera appears to be set up under a sink in the bathroom.”
The 59-minute clip was taken in her bathroom on October 15, and two other videos on his phone.
One showed him setting up the camera underneath a sink while naked and the other was of him performing a solo sex afterwards.
The prosecutor said: “Mr Lima sets up the camera whilst he is naked.
“He appears to move some bottles of cleaning fluid around to conceal it.”
The victim said in a statement: “This has made me feel shocked, scared for myself and I cannot believe what has happened.”
Richard Craven, in mitigation, confirmed the hotel toilets were open to the public.
He said: “There is some planning, but nobody was in fact recorded on that first offence so there was no harm in that offence.”
He added it was “very very unclear” why Lima initially pleaded not guilty until he admitted the counts on the first day of his trial on December 7.
Mr Craven said: “He has lost his home, he has lost his marriage, he has lost his wife.
“He is a man of 46 and of previous good character.
“He is a construction worker so he is fit and well and he can perform a very large number of hours of unpaid work for the community.”
The magiatrates’ chairman, Lord Fred Ponsonby, sentenced Lima to seven months in jail, suspended for two years, last Friday (Dec 28th).
He told Lima: “You pleaded guilty on the day of your trial and I can see that you are ashamed of yourself.
“So you have now got a suspended sentence, what that means is if you commit another offence you will go to jail unless it is unjust.”
He added: “This is the highest thing we can give you without actually putting you in jail.
“But we have also given you elements of your sentence which can help you because what we want you to do is to do your unpaid work and to do your requirements and not reoffend.
“You know very well that if you go to jail that you will not have a good time, so do what’s required and do not come back to court.”
Lima, who now lives in a shared flat in Camberwell, south east London, must also complete 60 days of rehabilitation and 100 hours of unpaid work.
He will be on the Sex Offenders’ Register for 10 years, and must pay £500 prosecution costs as well as a £115 victim surcharge. No orders for compensation were made.
He received four months suspended jail for the offence at the hotel, and three months consecutive for the offence at the home.
By Berny Torre
