SELECTED CASE LAW

ONTARIO:

2008 ONCJ 476

In 2008 ONCJ 476, the offender, Mr. G, pleaded guilty to voyeurism after filming his former wife while she showered. After noticing Mr. G’s hand and camera protruding through the bathroom window, the victim, Ms. X, screamed and called 911. Police seized the camera, sought a warrant to search the device, and forensically recovered a deleted video recording. The court noted that Mr. G had previously taken photographs of her without her consent.

At trial, Mr. G claimed that he made the video for his own sexual gratification and did not in-tend to distribute the video. The court accepted that “there was no evidence that the defend-ant took any steps to distribute images of the complainant, for example, on the internet” but also noted that “given the time frame involved here after he was discovered, these last images could not have been distributed in any event.”[1] Noting the lack of case law available, the court suspended Mr. G’s sentence and placed him on 18-months’ probation. Ms. X’s victim impact statement indicated that, “she no longer trusts men, has a fear of contact with men and so fears windows and she has covered the windows in her residence with black garbage bags and duct tape. She is being counselled through a local woman’s shelter and likely will need much more medical therapy to overcome the effect of this offence upon her.”[2] Nonetheless, the court noted during sentencing, “While the voyeurism of the defendant here was an abusive at-tack on the complainant’s personal privacy and while the effect of this on the complainant was, as already described, devastating, the offence is one of voyeurism, not of physical assault.”[3]


[1] 2008 ONCJ 476 at para 22.
[2] 2008 ONCJ 476 at para 13.
[3] 2008 ONCJ 476 at para 29.

 

Criminal Offence(s): Voyeurism