A 41-YEAR-OLD man used his mobile phone to secretly film a female workmate getting changed.

Paul Trinder hid his phone in his shoe to film the woman while she was in a cubicle in a unisex changing room at a company in Tetbury.

Trinder, of Walkmill Lane in Kingswood, Wotton-under-Edge, had denied a charge of voyeurism by recording a private act but was found guilty at Cheltenham Magistrates' Court today.

The court heard that the victim spotted Trinder's Samsung phone poking out of his shoe and when she inspected the device she discovered a recording of her getting changed, which she immediately deleted.

She then confronted Trinder, who denied he had intended to record her, before she called the police and gave officers the mobile phone.

Although the video had been deleted, officers were able to retrieve the footage from the phone's memory card.

In the video, Trinder was seen positioning the lens so it was facing the toilet cubicle.

In a statement read to the court, the victim said she told Trinder it was "unfair" to film her when she confronted him after the offence on November 14 last year.

During the trial, Trinder told the court that he was due at work at 7am the morning of the incident but arrived at 7.15am as he had slept through his alarm.

He said he thought he must have started a recording on the phone by mistake as he was fumbling with the device, checking his emails and messages.

Trinder explained that he would normally leave his shoes and clothes on the floor of the changing room as the lockers were very small.

He added that normally his phone would be kept secured in his locker but as he was late for work he decided to leave it in his shoe.

Prosecutor Graham Dono told Trinder that he must have deliberately wanted to film the woman as it was an unusual place to leave a mobile phone and position it as he did.

He said: “It is not plausible is it?”

The court heard that it would be impossible to start a recording on the phone without pressing a sequence of buttons.

Mr Dono said the fact that Trinder left work after being confronted by the victim suggested he was guilty.

“It is indicative of a guilty mind, is it not?” he said.

But Trinder claimed he fled because he was frightened, adding: “I am not going to lie, I was scared.”

Finding Trinder guilty, Judge David Robinson said: “When I ask myself was this deliberate, I have no doubt that this was a deliberate act.

"It was placed in a shoe which was an usual place - it would have to be stood up and angled in a certain way.

"It is quite clear that phone was adjusted and moved again. It was exactly targeted on a toilet where people do private acts and expose themselves.

"All evidence I have seen in my judgment points to the conclusion that this defendant was engaging in voyeurism and I find him guilty.”

Trinder will be sentenced at the same court on December 22.