A STUDENT has revealed how her vile stepdad secretly filmed her using a camera hidden among teddies and even stole her underwear.
Catherine Simpson, 21, was left in floods of tears in her bedroom after uncovering the foul acts of 48-year-old Paul Sellwood.
PACatherine Simpson was left in shock and tears after discovering the vile acts of her stepdad[/caption]
PAPaul Sellwood has been jailed[/caption]
PACatherine has slammed the “laughable” prison sentence handed down to her stepdad[/caption]
She had long tried to raise concerns over his sexually suggestive behaviour and lewd comments, recalling how he told her “touch yourself” when she was just 15.
On another occasion, Catherine claimed Sellwood “slapped (her) arse” while she was stroking her dog on the bed.
But she was told by her mum he “didn’t mean anything” by the sexually suggestive behaviour and
Catherine was later left “shaking” and burst into tears when more than 300 images and videos of her were found on the family iPad in September 2021 – many showing her naked on her bed.
She recalled how she received a call from her brother just weeks before her 19th birthday explaining he had found a picture of her in her work uniform on the device.
Catherine, who was working at a local pharmacy in Northampton at the time, initially didn’t suspect anything untoward.
But she realised the grave nature of the image when her brother told her the photo appeared to have been taken “on top of your wardrobe”.
Catherine’s colleagues came to her aid as she began crying, before she reported her stepdad to Northamptonshire Police.
Later the same evening, officers informed her Sellwood had been arrested and a camera had been found in her room hidden among stuffed teddies above her wardrobe.
He later admitted in police interview that he had recorded her for his own sexual gratification.
Catherine said: “It was a sickening feeling and I felt overwhelming anxiety and panic.”
Police seized his electronic devices, while she threw away all the teddies – each of which she had collected as a family tradition – as she “couldn’t stomach looking at them”.
Recalling her own police interview, Catherine said: “I cried and screamed at part of it because the one question I remember was, ‘What are you scared of Paul seeing?’
“I just said, ‘Me naked and doing what a girl does in her room when she’s naked’”.
“I don’t think it’s ever something that’s going to go away.”
Sellwood admitted six charges including voyeurism, making indecent photographs of a child, possessing prohibited images of a child and possessing extreme pornographic images portraying bestiality.
But Catherine has slammed the “slap on the wrist” sentence after he was jailed for 22 months and handed a 10-year sexual harm prevention order in September last year.
She described the result as a “victory” for law enforcement, but has been left furious over the “laughable” prison sentence.
Catherine has now launched a Government petition calling for an increase the maximum sentence for sex offences including voyeurism.
She hopes this will help other victims speak out and feel protected.
Catherine told the PA news agency: “I understand that it’s such a big achievement to get someone like that behind bars, but on my part, I just honestly do think it’s disgusting how short the sentence is.
“If the police caught me with cannabis in my bedroom, I’d probably get longer (in prison), and I don’t understand it.
“The impact he’s had on me and my whole family, it feels like he’s just getting a slap on the wrist at the end of the day.”
She decided against attending Sellwood’s sentencing hearing, fearing she would have felt “violently sick” listening to details of the case.
Catherine’s petition, which currently has more than 400 signatures, says those who commit sexual offences are not “punished enough” and victims often live with the impacts for “the rest of their lives”.
In her victim impact statement read to the court, she said: “Saying out loud that I hated the thought that you had watched me touch myself made me feel sick.
“Fuelled with the trauma you had put me through, doubting my capacity to do my degree and just thinking, ‘What’s the point?’, I went crazy.
“I was rarely sober, drinking and taking different drugs at least four times a week, clubbing until early hours, and winning social bonus points by being the drunkest in any room.
“I just stopped caring… I just wanted to forget and move from one day to the next.
“You (Sellwood) have impacted every part of my life and I hate it – but in doing so, you have made me the most resilient person I know.
“Throw anything at me and I can take it because I managed to survive you.”
Detective Chief Inspector Nickie Deeks, of Northamptonshire Police, added: “Voyeurism is an exceptionally invasive crime and leaves victims feeling violated and unsafe.
“To learn that your most private moments have been watched by someone else has a lasting effect on an individual and that’s why we treat offences so seriously.
“I am pleased to see Mr Sellwood sent to prison for these offences and although the sentence won’t erase what he did, I hope it provided the young woman in this case with some semblance of justice.”
PAThe student has started a petition calling for tougher sentencing[/caption]
PACatherine has thrown out the teddies used to hide the device[/caption]