A PERVERT has been found guilty of secretly videoing a father and daughter in a pool changing room. At St Albans Crown Court Kevin Bassett, 43, was told by Judge John Plumstead: It is by good grace and good luck that you were not lynched that day. A fat

A PERVERT has been found guilty of secretly videoing a father and daughter in a pool changing room.

At St Albans Crown Court Kevin Bassett, 43, was told by Judge John Plumstead: "It is by good grace and good luck that you were not lynched that day."

A father and his four-year-old daughter had been swimming at the Grange Paddocks Pool and Gym in Bishop's Stortford when the man noticed Bassett.

In a statement read to the court, the father said: "I noticed a middle-aged male on a bench holding a plastic bag. I noticed a hole at an angle pointing towards myself and my daughter.

"I walked towards him. I could see a round circular shape through the hole. I had visions of my daughter being on the internet.

"I said to him: 'Have you got a camera in there?'

He said: 'No, no'. I was shaking and shouting."

Pool manager Lynne Crick told the jury that the father was shouting. She said: "He was very agitated. He said "Can you come in here there is a bloke videoing my girl?'"

Mrs Crick said in the changing room she saw Bassett with no clothes on holding a plastic bag in front of his private parts. She said the father was shouting that he would not have his daughter on the internet. The little girl was getting upset, she said.

She said she called the police. When she was alone with Bassett in her office he told her: "I did have a video. It wasn't the little girl. It was the man I was interested in."

Bassett told her he had filmed in the swimming pool once before - two weeks earlier. He said a video camera was hidden in one of the lockers.

Prosecutor Richard Jones told the jury of 10 men and two women that police went to Bassett's home and seized video cassettes. He said: "The videos showed men's genitalia and had been recorded in a public place."

He said there were more than 30 images.

Mr Jones went on: "We say the fact that the defendant possessed these covert images of men's private parts shows an inherent interest in this sort of thing. The defendant took himself to the male changing room with the intention of gaining images of male genitalia to gratify himself sexually."

Bassett, who worked with computers and at a care home, Emblems of Dunmow, pleaded not guilty to one charge of voyeurism on April 16, 2005. He was convicted by the jury.

Bassett, a practicing Christian, told the jury he had lived with, and hidden his homosexuality for many years. He said: "It has made me ill over the years. I want to be like everyone else."

He said it had led to bullying at school and in the workplace. He said videos found at his home had been left there by a friend.

He said: "I thought the pictures were disgusting and never watched them since."

He added: "I wanted to do something so that I would be forced to tell my parents and hopefully that would help me and I would receive help.

"I was just thinking of myself and did not intend to hurt anyone. I was in a complete mess. I did not do it for any sexual reason whatsoever."

He said he has received counselling and support from friends and family.

After the verdict, Judge Plumstead chose to adjourn sentence for reports.