A dad-of-three hacked into hundreds of webcams so he could spy on women undressing and having sex.
Christopher Taylor, 60, tricked 772 people from across the world into unwittingly relinquishing control of their webcams so he could monitor their private lives.
He used the malware to log onto victims' computer devices while they ate, studied and did yoga. Police believe 47 women were engaging in sexual activity with their partner were secretly watched by Taylor from his laptop at his home in Wigan.
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He was caught after staff at Georgia Institute of Technology, in the United States, tipped off the FBI when the malware was found on the laptop of a student at the university's aerospace laboratory. When police raided his home in 2016, Taylor - a full-time carer for his wife - told officers: “It’s just what I’ve been meddling with on the computer.”
At Bolton Crown Court today (Tuesday), he was jailed for 14 months.
The court heard that after hacking the devices, Taylor made recordings of dozens of his oblivious victims for his own "sexual gratification".
Between 2010 and 2016, he amassed 80,000 images and videos. Officers also discovered a total of 82 bestiality images and videos, including one depicting a woman having sex with a dog, saved to his pen drive.
An investigation revealed that Taylor had also deleted thousands of files before he was arrested. Taylor lured in his victims with a phony link he placed on porn sites, which, when clicked, would allow him full access to their laptop’s function, including the webcam.
American law enforcement officials had asked for him to be extradited to the US to face trial for wire fraud and computer fraud but their request was rejected after a London court ruled it would ''negatively impact'' Taylor's ailing wife. Police bought charges against him at the end of last year, nearly seven years after the initial investigation.
Neil Fryman, prosecuting, told the court: "Many of these images and videos captured people eating, working, lying in bed and doing yoga.
"However, there were also a number of images that showed people in various stages of undress and involved in sexual activity."
Mr Fryman said that Taylor was caught after one victim, a student at the Georgia Institute of Technology, unwittingly downloaded the malware and their laptop into the college’s aerospace laboratory.
The malware was flagged by the college's sophisticated spyware systems and the FBI were alerted. Following an investigation, a raid was carried out on Taylor's home in February 2016.
Taylor, of Vicarage Road, Abram, Wigan, has previously pleaded guilty to securing unauthorised access to computer material and voyeurism. He also admitted possession of extreme pornography over obscene images found on his devices.
Andrew Jebb, mitigating for Taylor, said he "still struggles to provide an obvious answer as to why all of this began".
"Hacking on this scale is a very odd interest for any man to have but it merely started out as an interest in viruses before it developed into something more sinister," he added.
Taylor, who has been diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, previously claimed he had an "obsessive interest in computers and hacking". He was said to have become ''fascinated'' by the idea that he would be able to see through other people's webcams - describing it as an 'addiction'.
Judge Martin Walsh said he had considered suspending Taylor's sentence due to the impact sending him to prison may have upon his wife. However, he said that the "gravity" of the offences meant "only an immediate sentence of imprisonment can be justified".
"The offences involved a gross invasion into the privacy of very many individuals," the judge added. "The offending took place over a lengthy period of time and was undertaken following a significant degree of sophisticated planning and preparation.
"Victims were vulnerable in the sense that they were targeted within their own homes. Images were recorded and retained by you."
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