Police cannot rule out more voyeurism victims

A police chief said he could not guarantee there were not more victims of a man who pleaded guilty to several charges of voyeurism.

Kirk Bishop, from Guernsey, is due to be sentenced on 15 May after admitting to 20 charges, including voyeurism and trespass with intent to commit a sexual offence.

After a "complex" investigation Guernsey Police discovered Bishop had been filming people in the island in their homes as they had sex and undressed.

Guernsey Chief Officer Damian Kitchen said: "I can't guarantee to anybody walking past me that they weren't a victim and we didn't manage to identify them."

"All I can do to reassure people is be proportionate around this.

"In a population of 65,000 or so, half of which are female, your chances of having been a victim of this and not knowing about it are, I'm not minimising it, but they are low.

"So out of around 30 possible victims and bear in mind, some of the 30, we might have repeat victims that we haven't been able to tie to the original victims.

"So it might be the quality of the image isn't good enough, et cetera. So it might not be that there are another 14 or 15 victims."

Ahead of the sentencing Kitchen said this prosecution was a result of a "tenacious" investigation by Guernsey Police and he praised the "bravery" of victims who said they were willing to testify in court.

"I know offences have long-lasting impacts, on not only them but on the families as well and the children and the parents and partners, through that work and through their bravery in being willing to stand and face this guy in court if necessary he's now behind bars."

Kitchen said as a police officer who started 30 years ago he was pleased to see a "bad person" put away.

"This is a bad person. He's behind bars. I'm pleased."

Lucy Domaille, one of Bishop's victims, has criticised the length of sentence Bishop is likely to receive, as Guernsey's laws mean the maximum penalty for voyeurism is two years.

Home Affairs has committed to bringing proposals in to change that.

Officials had said they would be published before a States debate in either March or April, but that has not happened yet.

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