A FORMER Abingdon farmer who spied on holidaymakers through a CCTV camera in a rented annexe has failed to overturn his conviction and sentence.

David Sturgess, 55, was jailed for two-and-a-half years at Swansea Crown Court in November after being convicted of 12 counts of voyeurism and three of taking indecent photos of teenage girls.

The court heard he had moved from Abingdon to mid-Wales where he converted an outbuilding into a holiday home, which was then rented out.

Cameras were disguised as burglar alarm sensors.

Sturgess, of Maes Y Meillion, Llandysul, Ceredigion, was prosecuted after his former girlfriend told police he had been peeping on visitors by “installing a hidden camera in the annexe of his house”. Sturgess challenged his convictions, claiming that the trial judge hampered a fair trial by cutting short his defence.

But Mr Justice Kenneth Parker, sitting with Lord Justice Hooper and Mr Justice Butterfield last week, concluded that the judge’s handling of the case was “beyond criticism”.

He dismissed Sturgess’s sentence appeal, noting that his crimes involved a “clear case of voyeurism of the most serious kind”.

The appeal court heard that holidaymakers were secretly filmed undressing, taking showers and having sex — and were ‘devastated’ when told by police.

Sturgess insisted that his former girlfriend had instigated the covert operation, claiming she had an obsession with lesbian sex and “swinging couples”.

He claimed she was motivated by spite against him following the end of their relationship.

She planted incriminating video film at his house to get him put behind bars, he said.

But she denied all his accusations, also insisting that it was Sturgess who “introduced her to swinging”, said Mr Justice Parker.

As well as filming couples in the bedroom, Sturgess had also filmed two teenage girls.

The judge said: “They rightly felt devastated about him spying on them.”