A detective who used his mobile phone to spy on two women while they were in the bathroom was told he is likely to go to jail for the ‘despicable and disgusting’ offences.
DS Steven Colclough, 46, filmed one woman between the crack in the cubicle door at a police station.
He left his mobile phone in his bathroom to video a second woman who was a guest at a barbeque at the married officer’s home in Swindon in April 2017.
Colclough denied the offences but was convicted by the jury at Southwark Crown Court.
He claimed he filmed at the police station because he thought someone was taking drugs in the cubicle and left the phone in his bathroom to catch his children smearing poo on the walls.
Judge Christopher Hehir told him: ‘You have been convicted of two disgusting and despicable offences and you were not man enough to admit them.
‘You know my view – that you are likely to go straight to prison.’
The shamed detective denied two counts of voyeurism but was convicted. He now faces up to two years in jail.
Detective Sergeant Steven Colclough was convicted of two charges of voyeurism and now faces up to two years in jail
Colclough had hosted the barbeque at his home on April 10, 2017 and one of the female guests went to the toilet.
She was later joined by Colclough’s wife in the bathroom.
‘As they were talking she saw the mobile phone positioned by some shampoo with the camera facing into the bathroom,’ said Paul Jarvis, prosecuting.
Colclough’s wife recognised it as her husband’s mobile.
‘She picked it up, turned it round, and saw that it was recording. They started the video from the beginning.’
The prosecutor said the footage showed Colclough placing the handset in the bathroom, leaving, and then the victim coming in followed by his partner.
‘Both of them, for obvious reasons, were disgusted.’
Colclough’s wife then deleted the video.
Jurors heard they broke up later in 2017 and the separation was not amicable.
Giving evidence his Colclough’s ex-wife said she was in ‘utter shock’ after she found her husband’s phone in the toilet.
‘I was disgusted so I deleted it. I confronted him in the kitchen.’
Colclough was working a night shift at the police station in April 2021 when he was caught by a colleague filming a woman in the toilet.
Detective Sergeant Steven Colclough, 45, pictured outside Southwark Crown Court
‘She saw Mr Colclough standing outside the door of the women’s toilet holding his mobile telephone up to a crack in the door,’ said Mr Jarvis.
‘She said to him words to the effect of “What the f-k are you doing?”.
‘As Mr Colclough turned to look at her, his face dropped. He looked like a child, like someone who had been caught with their hand in the cookie jar.’
Colclough was confronted by a colleague and told her that he thought the woman was taking drugs in the station toilet ‘which is why he was spying on her’, said the prosecutor.
He was interviewed on October 7, 2021 and made no comment but in a prepared statement claimed again that he had recorded the woman ‘because he suspected she was taking drugs’.
The prosecutor added: ‘If he suspected she was taking drugs in the toilet, why would he not report that to his superiors?
‘Why would he risk recording her through the gap in the door in case – by chance – she was actually using the toilet and he ended up inadvertently recording her doing so?
‘The reality, on both counts, is that Mr Colclough derives enjoyment from watching women using the toilet, and in order to get his kicks.
‘To watch them on the toilet, or to record them on the toilet, so he can watch the recording later, no doubt in privacy and for his own pleasure.’
Colclough, now of Reading, denied but was convicted of two charges of voyeurism.
He will be sentenced on January 16.
