A SWIMMING pool peeping Tom who was caught after his picture was published in the Gazette and Herald has been jailed for 15 months.

Daniel Helps, 36, had been using his iPhone to video young girls in the changing rooms at the Olympiad leisure centre in Chippenham when one spotted the device being poked under the door.

Helps, whose wife is now pregnant with their first child, fled from the scene but the youngster was able to identify him from the centre's CCTV footage.

And after images from the security cameras were published in July last year he was recognised and police went to his home and found a huge cache of similar material.

He initially tried to claim he was photographing a thief who was trying to make off with one of the girl's bags.

But when police examined his computer they found 298 similar movie files made on 188 different days over two-and-a-half years he came clean.

Officers also found old VHS cassettes and digital recordings of a lodgers who had lived with him up to ten years earlier along with the images from the Olympiad.

Hannah Squire, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court he was finally caught after three girls aged about 13 were changing after a swim in June 2014.

One saw the black iPhone under the cubicle and went round to find out what was going on, but only saw a man running off.

"There was CCTV and images were published in the paper. As a result of that publication the defendant's name was put forward," she said.

Although most of the victims could not be identified one woman had made a complaint to the police after a similar incident in March 2012.

She managed to identify herself and told how the incident, which took place when she was just 17, had a great impact as she wondered where the video might end up.

Miss Squire said: "There were 298 movie files found on his laptop all depicting young females in changing cubicles at the Olympiad.

"There were 118 dates on which these images had been films between September 2011 and March 2014.

"It was clear all the images had been captured covertly either over or under the changing room cubicles at the swimming pool."

While some of the footage was of women much was of children and some of the girls were under the age of 13, she said.

Also on the computer police found 11 indecent images of children which may have come from a naturist site.

When he was questioned the defendant at first lied about bag thieves but then went on to say he didn't think he was doing anything wrong and it was 'harmless'.

Helps, of The Wheelwrights, Sutton Benger, pleaded guilty to six counts of voyeurism and two of making indecent images of children.

Andrew Eddy, defending, said his client had never been in trouble before and had sought counselling for his problem following his arrest.

He said he was in full time employment and his wife, who is standing by him, is expecting their first child in the New Year.

"He is genuinely a law abiding and hard working man and this is completely out of character," he said.

Jailing him Judge Tim Mousley QC said: "This was a gross invasion of these young girls' privacy.

"They were unaware of what happened. When they became aware most of them, if not all of them, had a genuine fear that what had been recorded may be distributed.

"These offences went on over several years and what you did was not a one off and can't be described as out of character."

He also told him he must register as a sex offender for ten years and imposed a sexual harm prevention order, restricting his liberty, for life.

Last year Nick Moran, area manager for Places for People Leisure, which manages the Olympiad, said: “It is important to point out that everybody who attends the Olympiad is captured on CCTV.”

The Olympiad installed £20,000 worth of CCTV equipment 11 years ago after a man was caught peeping at two nine-year-old girls.

In January 2013 signs were put up in changing rooms forbidding the use of mobile phones.