Former LCC lecturer jailed

by James McDonald

Former London College of Communication (LCC) lecturer Benjamin Wilkins was jailed last week after secretly taping himself in a series of sexual encounters with several women.

Wilkins, who worked at LCC between 2003 and 2008, was a Radio Production tutor as part of the BA Hons Media Culture Studies course and also taught on the FDA Broadcast Journalism course.

He resigned from his position in June 2008 and was arrested a month later after two women, one of whom was his girlfriend at the time, went to police with the tapes after discovering them in a box in his loft.

He was jailed for eight months and was ordered to sign the Sex Offender Register for 10 years after admitting 11 counts of voyeurism, including filming five women and concealing cameras – one inside a smoke alarm above his bed and another in his bathroom.

Police found his cameras were connected to a hard drive recorder in his living room that he switched on when he wanted to start filming. He then copied the files on to his home computer, before transferring them to DVD.

The women, most of whom hold senior positions in television and radio – in both presenting and production roles – cannot be named for legal reasons.

Wilkins admitted recording encounters with five women at his flat in Brixton, South London, despite police recovering more than 50 hours of footage featuring five more victims over three years. He admitted 11 counts of voyeurism at Camberwell Magistrates' Court last December.

He received his sentencing at Inner London Crown Court by Judge Roger Chapple, who said: “Parties to consensual sexual activity give consent to sexual activity in privacy, not for their very private acts to be covertly filmed for your later gratification.

“What you did represents a cruel, selfish and serious betrayal of the trust they placed in you.

“These offences were planned and deliberate. I do not sentence you for your sexual appetite or your morals, what I do sentence you for is the trust that you calculatedly betrayed.”