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BBC Producer Charged With Voyeurism For Secretly Filming His Sexual Encounters

by Gopalan on Feb 2 2010 8:46 AM

A BBC producer who secretly filmed his sexual encounters stands charged with voyeurism.

Benjamin Wilkins, 36, hid a CCTV device in a smoke alarm to capture those ‘ecstatic’ moments. He also used another miniature camera to record his partners when they went to use the bathroom at his former flat in Brixton, South London.

At least ten women have been filmed that way, according to London police. The man has since admitted to the charges against him.

Many of the women Wilkins seduced hold senior positions in television and radio – both presenting and in production roles – but cannot be named for legal reasons.

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: ‘He was filming his sexual encounters with women without their consent.

‘There was a camera in a hollowed-out smoke alarm in his bedroom, and another movable one in the bathroom, hidden in an ornament.

‘There were many hours of footage, more than 50 in all.

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He was caught when his girlfriend – and mother of his child – discovered a box of DVDs hidden in his loft and called the police.

A BBC insider said: ‘None of these women would have agreed to having sex with him if they had known he was violating their privacy, taping them with a hidden camera. We are sickened.’ 

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Mr. Wilkins was also found to have stored secret footage of his sexual encounters – which took place over three years – on a home computer.

It is not thought, however, that he circulated any of the footage on the internet. 

He admitted ten charges of voyeurism, involving six different women between 2005 and 2008, when he faced Camberwell Green magistrates' court.

The maximum sentence for voyeurism is two years.

Mr. Wilkins will also have to sign the sex offenders register after his sentence.

He has worked for several years as a producer at BBC London and was a promising journalist.

In 2004 he won an internal BBC award, the Frank Gillard prize, naming him as local radio reporter of the year. He resigned from his post following his arrest in August 2008.

Wilkins, who also lectured in journalism at the London College of Communication, met the mother of his child while she was studying at the college.

Wilkins is due to be sentenced at Inner London Crown Court later this month.

A spokesman for the BBC said it would be ‘inappropriate’ to comment as legal proceedings had not concluded.


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