Housemate who secretly recorded us has been made a lecturer at UK university

[Smurfsarethefuture]

I cannot be unreasonable here. I wrote on here about two yrs ago about my housemate who hid a camera in our kitchen. He is now a lecturer at a London uni.

The police were not interested neither was landlady- I didn’t contact university and am now wondering should I?

I remember you posting about this in the past and there is no doubt that what he did is fucking creepy and totally wrong. I'm shocked at the attitudes here.

I can understand why you would still be troubled by it and why you would be concerned about him being in a position of trust. I think it shows that you are a moral person who is worried for the safety of other people. I think it would be appropriate for you to write to the University and tell them about it. What they do then is in their hands. It may make them more alert to any other red flags or complaints.

I'm also surprised at the responses here. I used to walk around naked when I was home alone at Uni this would have deeply disturbed me

Honestly, I’d have been pretty disturbed if I’d come home and found you waking around naked in our shared home spaces

[quote Smurfsarethefuture]@HeyDemonsItsYaGirl

The camera was on the window sill hidden behind something but an an angle. He then moved it to the front house window, low to the ground. I don’t know why he was recording both sound and visual. I don’t know why, food was not an issue, conversations? Us in our pjs? He did it after the man who had been living there left and there were 3 women in the house with him.[/quote]
I am surprised people think it's fine and nothing odd about it. Unless he was doing a project, perhaps a time-lapse (which he should have your consent), there's absolutely no reason at all to be recording people in their home without their knowledge. Its such an invasion of privacy and really gross.

I remember you posting about this in the past and there is no doubt that what he did is fucking creepy and totally wrong. I'm shocked at the attitudes here.

Everyone agrees. Literally everyone thinks he is a creep for this.

You still haven’t given any information about why he was filming or what was captured on the camera.
This leads me to think that it was a stupid but not sinister event.

It is odd that you are following the career of this ex-housemate and now appear to be trying to get him sacked. You already alerted the police at the time, but this isn’t good enough for you. You are now pursuing a personal vendetta. Why?

I am surprised people think it's fine and nothing odd about it.

Who has said this? Nobody.

[quote Smurfsarethefuture]@HeyDemonsItsYaGirl

The camera was on the window sill hidden behind something but an an angle. He then moved it to the front house window, low to the ground. I don’t know why he was recording both sound and visual. I don’t know why, food was not an issue, conversations? Us in our pjs? He did it after the man who had been living there left and there were 3 women in the house with him.[/quote]
Ok so it wasn’t to catch a food thief. You said he didn’t think he’d done anything wrong, but you don’t know why he did it.

Was it a “yah boo sucks I can do what I like and you can’t stop me” scenario? If so, what did he say to the police when they asked him why he’d done it?

Think of it from the position of the University - someone not affiliated brings you a 2 year old accusation with no evidence about someone who was not employed by you when the alleged event occurred. What would you do?

What about if it was a current accusation about an employe, which happened off campus and outside of business hours and which the police declined to investigate?

Who would you even tell anyway?

@FrangipaniDeLaSqueegeeMop

Amazed people think the police got giving a shit is any sort of bench mark for if something was 'bad'. How many times have women come on MN and told us that the police don't give a shot when they're assaulted?

Exactly. And not just on MN. It's a well documented problem.

Also, the job of the police is to gather evidence and present it to the CPS to make decisions about prosecuting.

I don’t know why

Okay but you said he freely admitted it, so what reason did he give?

I am surprised people think it's fine and nothing odd about it.

Nobody has said it's fine. Literally everyone has said it isn't fine.

I think being as it wasn't dealt with at the time you gave to let it go. If you do anything now you are exposing yourself to litigation from him.

Why did he put a camera in the kitchen? Presumably it was something to do with pilfered food rather than on the hope of seeing people undressed?

Of course he shouldn't have done it, but it seems like the sort of thing that might seem reasonable to a very young person feeling that his housemates were stealing. It might even be the sort of thing that gets recommended on MN!

No reason at all for him to be paying for it years later in my view.

what did you do about it at the time?

As the police did not do anything then they must think there was not a case . It was a kitchen not a bedroom or bathroom ?

So I dont think you should contact his employers .

He has no convictions so what are you going to say ?

I don't think people here are saying it's fine. But I can't see an employer caring or responding to something like this.

Even if they asked him (which I don't think they would), he could just say "oh god, it's my old creepy flatmate again who makes up weird lies about me".

[quote Smurfsarethefuture]@PurpleDaisies

Not random. Were housemates.

Bit shocked at the responses, guys. Very passive, no?[/quote]
They're realistic. You're posting a lot but providing very vague information. It doesn't sound like he committed any offence. And in any event the employer will not be remotely interested (not should they be) without an actual conviction.

I would have been disturbed if I came home and found my housemate walking around naked tbh.

What outcome do you want if you reported him to the uni @Smurfsarethefuture?

@PurpleDaisies

Nobody is saying he was right to do this.

I dunno, you seem pretty invested in defending him.

"It’s completely different to the OP. You really think a man who distributed covert videos of his teenage girlfriend having sex should be teaching in a secondary school? If he’s done it shortly after when it rightly became a crime he would be on some kind of register with a criminal record! You’d honestly be fine with this ‘man’ teaching your teenagers? That’s worrying."

It happened 12 years ago. Probably before the children he's teaching were even born. I have no idea how you make a connection between his - and I completely agree that that it was hideous and should be penalised - behaviour and his teaching activities.

I am fully aware that the people teaching my children have likely done vile things at some point in their life (as we probably all have somewhere) but unless it is very specifically to do with teaching children I don't really think it is any of my business.

It’s not necessarily fine and does sound odd but so what ? The police cos can only investigate where there is an offence alleged - not entirely sure there was an offence here. Then even if there were they can only charge where the cos charging standards are met - is there sufficient evidence that a conviction is likely and is it in the public interest to proceed.
Clearly at the time you reported this op these would all have informed the police decision not to proceed. So that was that.
Loads of people are walking amongst us right now who have done odd or creepy things but we can’t approach their employer with what amounts to uncorroborated tales of you reporting something which the pice took no further. !
You’re not wrong to have noticed and had a thought. There really is nothing for you to do now. If you were to you might well be committing an offence !

What do you perceive as the risk to his students? Why did he say he'd put the camera up when challenged?

I understand that the university cannot do anything now. I didn’t think it worked like that. I thought that if something like this was reported and then later there was a separate incident and a pattern starts to emerge there is a record - I thought that was what we were being advised to do across all sorts of crimes. I know that the police can’t act on everything but I thought records were being kept?

@Womaninthemirror1

This is really unnecessary- and there is no personal vendetta. I ‘m in a safe guarding role and the easy thing is for me personally to let it go but professionally I was trying to figure out the right thing to do.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3672606-Housemate-set-camera-up-in-house-without-our-knowledge?pg=4

This one? A lot of people there suggested you contact his supervisor for his PhD. Did you do that? They might have been more interested in the ethical side of it and censured him than the police would have been.

@bongsuhan

"It’s completely different to the OP. You really think a man who distributed covert videos of his teenage girlfriend having sex should be teaching in a secondary school? If he’s done it shortly after when it rightly became a crime he would be on some kind of register with a criminal record! You’d honestly be fine with this ‘man’ teaching your teenagers? That’s worrying."

It happened 12 years ago. Probably before the children he's teaching were even born. I have no idea how you make a connection between his - and I completely agree that that it was hideous and should be penalised - behaviour and his teaching activities.

I am fully aware that the people teaching my children have likely done vile things at some point in their life (as we probably all have somewhere) but unless it is very specifically to do with teaching children I don't really think it is any of my business.

Wow. Ok then. Of course some teachers are not going to be great people....but there’s ‘not great people’ and sex criminals. I’m comfortable with making a distinction, personally!