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Stalker neighbour jailed after being caught with listening devices he planted on victim's bed

Watch: Moment stalker gets caught trying to remove recording equipment from victims home

A stalker who was caught on camera trying to retrieve recording devices he planted in his victim's home has been jailed.

William Nolan, 59, and his wife were trusted with a key to neighbour Leigh Jones's home so they could feed her two cats while she was away.

But Jones, 64, was horrified when she found a voice recorder taped under her coffee table - and then another behind the headboard in her bedroom.

Jones then set up covert webcams to catch the person who came to collect the recording kit.

After Jones caught Nolan returning to her home on her cameras she called the police.

The recording device was found on Leigh Jones's bed.(SWNS)
The recording device was found on Leigh Jones's bed. (SWNS)

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The married former security guard admitted stalking without fear, alarm and distress and was jailed for 15 weeks at Birmingham Magistrates' Court on 25 May.

The judge described the case as one of the most serious stalking offences he had ever seen.

Jones, who is speaking out to raise awareness of the seriousness of stalking, said she felt "totally violated."

She said "I just felt uncomfortable putting my underwear out in the garden, just the thought of him watching.

"For me, for somebody to put a recording device on your headboard there's only one reason why they want to do that and that's a sexual reason - something only a perv would do.

"I want to make people aware that you can’t trust anyone - after being neighbours for 30 years, being widowed, and then him doing this to me."

Leigh Jones installed cameras in her home to catch the culprit. (SWNS)
Leigh Jones installed cameras in her home to catch the culprit. (SWNS)

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Jones said her and Nolan were "normal, friendly neighbours", would chat regularly and trusted each other.

She was having dinner at her home with her partner, 64, when he found a black plastic box under the table, held by double sided tape, on 7 November.

She initially thought it might be one of her grandson's toys, but soon realised it was spyware.

Jones said: "I was so upset and so panicky but my main concern was were they live listening devices, but we found they were recorders.

"Then we thought how's it got there, who's put it there, and the next thing we thought was are there any more?

William Nolan confessed to installing the recording devices. (SWNS)
William Nolan confessed to installing the recording devices. (SWNS)

The pair turned the house upside down to find more, and eventually found another device taped to the back of her bed's headboard.

She said: "We slept very little and thought whoever planted them needs to come back to get them so you can play back back via the laptop.

"We thought we need to catch them."

After the police told her they couldn't help Jones set up cameras in her home and told Nolan's wife she was going away for the night.

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William Nolan was jailed for 16 weeks. (SWNS)
William Nolan was jailed for 16 weeks. (SWNS)

Soon after she left Nolan was recorded retrieving his devices on the camera.

Jones said when she returned she noticed a large footprint on her landing and knew someone had been in her house.

The footage showed him panicked, rummaging through the kitchen drawer and then going out of shot briefly to look for the device that was on her headboard.

She called her son, 32, to go and confront the Nolans.

The Catch-up sign up
The Catch-up sign up

She said: "I went next door spoke to them about it and he went ‘I don’t know what you're talking about’.

"His wife said maybe he was looking for the cats, and I said ‘what, under the coffee table?’"

Jones called the police and submitted her evidence and they arrested Nolan.

She said he initially maintained he was looking for the cats in the video footage.

But he pleaded guilty to the charge and was jailed last month.

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