The owner and manager of Leeds dive centre Bear Divers has been found guilty of secretly filming a 13-year-old girl and two women getting undressed in a changing room.

David Hepworth was convicted after a three-day trial at Leeds Crown Court on 6 April and will be sentenced at a later date, according to a report in the Yorkshire Post.

Hepworth, who is married, was said to have used an underwater camera to record the same three people on separate occasions last year. The jury rejected his defence that he had been using the camera to catch thieves.

Hepworth was found guilty on three counts of voyeurism by recording another person doing a private act in order to obtain sexual gratification. His PADI membership and that of Bear Divers was suspended last August, and he now faces possible expulsion from the agency.

One of the women filmed told the Yorkshire Post that Hepworth "was in a position of trust as a diving instructor, and what he did was disgusting. He's obviously quite a sick individual, especially as he filmed a child." The other woman added: "I hope he won't teach diving again and I really hope the judge sends him to prison."


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