A BUSINESSMAN used a secret camera disguised as a cigarette lighter to film a girl in a shower.

Leslie Coupe, aged 54, was given a suspended prison sentence after a judge heard how he is ashamed and embarrassed about his behaviour.

Coupe, of Gresley Avenue, Horwich, pleaded guilty to voyeurism.

Elizabeth Evans, prosecuting, told how Coupe was at a house where other people were staying and left the hidden camera on top of a pile of boxes in the bathroom.

But later in the evening the device was picked up by visitors to the property, who realised it was a motion activated camera and hard drive, not a real lighter, when they attempted to switch it on.

They plugged it into a computer and the footage which had been filmed showed Coupe putting the device into place and then a girl, who had used the bathroom earlier in the evening, getting undressed and showering.

Police were called and Coupe was arrested.

He told officers that he had bought the camera via eBay three months earlier with the intention of filming his wife.

Miss Evans described the devastating effect Coupe’s crime had on his victim.

In a statement, the girl’s mother described the offence as “damaging, degrading and unforgivable.”

Martin Pizzey, defending, said Coupe, who has no previous convictions, could not explain his behaviour and had been drinking that evening.

“He is full of shame and embarrassment. He knows very clearly the harm he has caused and he bitterly regrets that,” said Mr Pizzey.

“It was quite wrong and he recognises that.

“He had, up to this point, led a very decent and law-abiding life. He is simply broken.”

Judge Graeme Smith sentenced Coupe to eight months in prison, suspended for two years and ordered that he do 200 hours unpaid work.

Judge Smith commented that Coupe had lost his reputation by his “foolish and deliberate action.”

“There’s little public benefit in you being incarcerated,” he told Coupe, stressing that nothing the court could do would repair the damage he had done.

Coupe was also ordered to pay his victim £1,200 compensation and will be placed on the sex offenders’ register for 10 years.

A sexual harm prevention order for five years and a restraining order banning him from contacting his victim were also made.