An actor and musician who set up a hidden camera to film children undressing during costume changes in theatre dressing rooms has been jailed and placed on the sex offenders register for life.
Thomas Jason Connell, 27, also recorded adult victims while they showered at the homes of friends he was visiting and was found to have filmed children as they undressed at a swimming pool changing room.
The pervert singer-songwriter – who performed on stage as T-J Connell – also upskirted women at an Edinburgh train station and stored child abuse pictures on his phone.
Connell had previously been convicted of possessing indecent images of children and the huge haul of seedy recordings were uncovered when police carried out a home visit to check his devices in January last year.
He pleaded guilty to eight offences of voyeurism and possessing indecent images of children when he appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court last month and returned to the dock for sentencing today.
Sheriff Derek O’Carroll jailed Connell for a total of 42 months backdated to April last year and placed him on the sex offenders register for an indefinite period.
Sheriff O’Carroll also imposed a 10-year sexual harm prevention order along with a 10 year non-harassment order for one of the victims.
Lawyer Cameron Tait, defending, said his client acknowledged he had committed “a significant breach of trust” and has been engaging with the sex offenders organisation Stop It Now while in custody.
Connell’s website describes him as “a well-rounded entertainer whose soft rock stylings have pleased many an ear” and states he has “a relaxed and approachable stage demeanour”. He released his debut album Stand Fast in 2019 and has appeared in several Edinburgh Fringe community theatre productions including Annie and Whistle Down The Wind.
Previously the court heard the actor and singer, of the capital’s Stenhouse area, had been placed on the sex offenders register for two years after being caught with child abuse images in 2023.
Police carried out an unannounced visit to his home to check his devices in January last year and discovered videos of “men and women in their underwear getting changed backstage during a theatre show”.
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Fiscal depute Connor Muir said Connell voluntarily admitted to the officers he had “experimented with voyeurism around the time he had been convicted for the indecent images” and his phone and a laptop were seized.
A forensic examination of the devices revealed several video clips of Connell placing a camera in the bathrooms of two homes he had visited capturing women “showering naked” between November 2019 and June 2022.
Victims including a 17-year-old girl were said to have “broken down in tears” and told police they were “shocked and disturbed” when informed of the footage taken of them.
Police also found a covert 48 minute video showing children in various states of undress in the changing rooms at an Edinburgh swimming pool in January 2020. Further footage captured by Connell showed children aged between 11 and 16 undressing while backstage at two theatres in the capital between August 2019 and February 2020.
Mr Muir said Connell’s face and voice was included on the footage and the images depicted male and female children undressing during costume changes. The court was told all the victims did not know about the recordings and had later described the footage as “shocking, inappropriate and a violation of trust”.
Police also found videos of Connell upskirting two women who have never been identified at the city’s Waverley train station on separate dates in December last year.
Police then discovered Connell had two category A child abuse videos downloaded to his phone depicting “children aged 10 to 14 years old being subjected to penetrative sexual activity”.
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