Sergeant major accused of filming camp girls

Mar 11 2008 Western Mail

A 42-YEAR-OLD sergeant major made indecent films of young girls at an army training camp, a court heard yesterday.

Richard Brown, a father, of Beaumont Close in Nantyglo, Brynmawr, was working as a warrant officer at Cwrt y Gollen training camp in Crickhowell, Powys, when the alleged offences took place between June and November 2005.

Boys and girls aged 14 to 16 came from local schools to take part in an army preparation course called Look At Life, Cardiff Crown Court heard.

Prosecutor Ieuan Morris said Brown, who helped instruct the course, was a voyeur who took videos of girls getting ready for bed to derive sexual pleasure from them.

Brown’s wife Lynne came across films at their home in Mattel Way, Crickhowell, in October 2006.

She handed four CDs of material to police.

Officers then searched Brown’s garage where they found “a large number of images” and a Cannon Powershot camera, used to film them.

Police also searched the sergeant major’s drawers in his office and found a laptop containing more images.

There were 68 films on CDs and the laptop, and one on the camera’s memory card.

They showed girls in a ground floor dormitory getting changed for bed, often in a state of undress.

Mr Morris said many of the films were captured through a gap in the dormitory curtains.

He said one of Brown’s colleagues saw him leaving the girls’ sleeping area in October 2005, dressed all in black, when he had no professional reason to be there.

When Brown was arrested in November 2006 he made a statement claiming he had not made the films and had been set up.

Mr Morris said, “In the statement he said he didn’t take images, but someone with a grudge against him did and put them on a CD without his knowledge.”

Brown denies all 13 counts, including seven of taking indecent images of a child, five of voyeurism, and one of possessing indecent images of children.

Judge Philip Richards adjourned the trial until today. It is expected to last five days.