ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — The lawyer for a man who used a hidden camera to secretly film his Mount Pearl coworkers semi-nude over a period of months argued for a lenient sentence Thursday, saying it was partly a “crime of opportunity” and he should have resisted temptation.
Alex Seymour, 24, worked at a Goodlife gym when he hid an old iPod in the offices of three female coworkers and recorded them changing their clothes after exercise classes.
“To have a workplace where women are changing regularly, for a 22-year-old-man, this was a crime of opportunity,” lawyer Ellen O’Gorman told Judge Jacqueline Brazil. “When I put myself in his situation, I think this is something that was a temptation for him.”
“I’m supposed to take into consideration as a mitigating factor that he was 22 and worked in an environment where women are expected to change daily?” the judge asked.
“That’s my position,” O’Gorman replied, pointing to a pre-sentencing report that referred to Seymour as being socially isolated. “He should have resisted, but didn’t.”
O’Gorman acknowledged there had been some planning by Seymour and later added, “I don’t suggest for a minute it’s the fault of the women.”
The women in question, however, say they felt blamed by O’Gorman.
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“We were at work. We were somewhere where we were told we were safe on a daily basis,” Sherri O’Halloran said. “For her, a woman, to get up and say that it was crime of opportunity? That he made a bad decision? That was not a bad decision, that was planned, and that was done just the way that (Seymour) wanted it to be done.”
Jenny Wright of the St. John’s Status of Women Council told The Telegram O’Gorman’s argument amounts to victim blaming.
“This clearly is not a crime of opportunity,” Wright said, pointing to Seymour’ premeditation.
“The same misogyny that exists in our society is rampant throughout our justice system. To put forward a legal argument that men cannot help themselves, that they have some inherent need to harm women, is reckless victim blaming and normalizes sexual violence.”
Seymour has pleaded guilty to three counts of unlawfully making a visual recording in a place where there is a reasonable expectation of privacy in connection with his secret recordings, which he made over a period of months in the spring and summer of 2016. He was caught by his coworker, Jess Whittle, who found the iPod propped up on a box under her desk.
Police found a number of videos on the device of Whittle, O’Halloran and another woman, with their breasts or buttocks revealed as they changed clothes in their offices.
Whittle and O’Halloran shared their story with The Telegram earlier in the week, saying they have dealt with feelings of shame and guilt, and find they are less trusting and more private than they were before learning of the hidden video.
O’Halloran read a victim impact statement to the court, looking directly at Seymour, who looked sheepishly back at her.
"I feel unsafe in this world lately, especially at work. I hate that feeling.” — Sherri O’Halloran
“This has affected me more than I’m willing to admit,” O’Halloran said, adding she felt like screaming every time she drove past the Goodlife location where she used to work. “Sometimes it’s hard to sleep. Other times it’s hard to wake. I feel unsafe in this world lately, especially at work. I hate that feeling.”
Seymour stood up and addressed the court when given the opportunity, apologizing to his coworkers and his family, and for “wasting the court’s time.”
“Reading Sherri’s statement, I didn’t know it had had that impact on her,” Seymour said. “What I did impacted a lot of people, not only in this courtroom but outside as well.”
Crown prosecutor Jennifer Colford argued for a jail term of three to six months for Seymour, followed by a period of probation with conditions that he attend counselling and have no contact with the women. She also requested Seymour be added to the national sex offender registry.
Colford said Seymour’s moral blameworthiness is high, and jail time is needed as both a personal and a public deterrent for the crimes. The women were all negatively affected, she said.
“Whatever motivated him to do this, and I’m not quite sure what it is, he needs to get a handle on this so it doesn’t happen again,” Colford told the court.
O’Gorman argued for a conditional discharge for Seymour, which would mean his criminal record would be wiped clean after a period of time if he abides by court orders. She noted Seymour has no history of mental health or addiction issues, is a post-secondary student and was deemed in the pre-sentence report as a very low risk to reoffend generally, and a medium-low risk when it comes to sexual-based crimes.
O’Gorman pointed to the media attention of the case, specifically an article in The Telegram, as a deterrent for Seymour and for the public.
“The public will see Mr. Seymour’s picture in the paper, they’ll see what happened,” she said. “This is an offence that is deeply embarrassing for a young man to be known for and that’s going to follow him for the rest of his life.”
Brazil will deliver her sentencing decision May 28.
Twitter: @tara_bradbury