A primary school caretaker, who raped a four year-old girl, sexually abused a thirteen year-old and secretly filmed a married couple with a hidden camera when he accommodated them in his spare bedroom, has been jailed for thirteen years and three months.
Tony Cunningham, 54, (pictured) was a guest at the couple's home in Bridlington Road, Skipsea where he molested the girl when she was a teenager, Croydon Crown Court heard.
Cunningham, of Norbury Avenue, Thornton Heath, Croydon, claimed he was the victim of a conspiracy, but this was rejected by the jury and he received twelve years for raping the child between December 5, 1985 and December 4, 1986 and a concurrent term for indecently assaulting her when she was aged either eight or nine years-old.
Prosecutor Mr. Tim Forster told the jury: “When she was about four years-old she remembers the defendant getting into bed next to her, moving her legs aside and pushing his penis into her.
“She remembers it hurt and that the following morning she was sore and she has that firmly in her mind.”
Cunningham was also convicted of two counts of sexually assaulting the Skipsea girl between October 18, 2006 and October 18, 2007 and received an additional nine months imprisonment.
He was further convicted of voyeurism on March 24, 2005 in that he recorded the girl's parents for his own sexual gratification at his former home in Woodside Road, South Norwood and received another six months.
Mr. Forster told the jury the Skipsea complainant, now aged 19, confided in a friend just before Christmas, last year that she had been touched by Cunningham
“She remembered that five years ago when the defendant came to stay with her family that while she was watching television Mr. Cunningham pulled a blanket over her and put his hand on her hand and moved it towards his groin.
“Two or three months later she was taking laundry upstairs when Mr. Cunningham asked her if she wanted a cuddle.
“He pulled her on top of him on to the bed and she could feel him thrusting between her legs with his erect penis.”
After the allegations were made Cunningham was asked to leave the matrimonial home by his wife, who then found two VHS cassettes among his belongings.
“She was absolutely shocked to find it was rather grainy footage of their spare room and the couple in bed, or undressing or getting up in the morning with particular emphasis on the wife.
“There was some sexual activity and footage of the wife without any clothing and the husband lying naked on the bed,” explained Mr. Forster.
“The footage had been recorded with a concealed camera and edited down to the best bits, into a compilation.”
The police were called and it was obvious the camera had been hidden inside an air vent cavity, which had been adjusted to allow images to be recorded, the jury were told.
“Mr. Cunningham is obsessed with cameras and he installed a CCTV system in the house,” added Mr. Forster.
Among some of Cunningham's pornographic dvd's his wife also found a computer disc that contained four images of the Skipsea girl.
“They show her in a paddling pool and they include two close-ups of her crotch.
“Mr. Cunningham was the gifted and keen photographer in the house. Does it reveal how his mind was working?
“They are a window into his mind,” the prosecutor added. “If you have any doubt about what the Crown says happened in Yorkshire these pictures will remove that doubt.”
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