LONER Steven Hankers was able to gain access to people’s private cameras within their own homes.

He was able to watch couples having sex and children undressing in the UK, Europe and in America.

He recorded it all and stunned police found more than 4,000 video clips which he had produced after saving them from people’s cameras without the victims’ knowledge.

It all came to light when police investigated him over allegations of inciting children in the UK and in Australia to indulge in sex acts at his instruction over web cams – again which he recorded and filed away.

Mold Crown Court heard Hankers, 32, of Melyd Avenue in Johnstown, spent hours alone in his bedroom and became addicted to the internet.

He was jailed for six years was ordered to register as a sex offender for life and an indefinite sexual harm prevention order was made.

Hankers admitted possessing 122 category A movies – the most serious kind – of children, 335 category B movies and 41 category C movies, downloading category A, B and C movies, five charges of inciting girls to engage in sexual acts and two charges of voyeurism – secretly recording others doing private acts without their knowledge over their own personal cameras.

Barrister Simon Rogers, prosecuting, said Hankers was able to gain access to private cameras within homes and recorded footage of adults having sex and children undressing.

Software was available for people to watch and record footage from CCTV over the internet which people used for security purposes, so they could check their homes or businesses while they were away, he said.

On his arrest Hankers was found to have access to 16 active cameras in countries all over Europe, in Philadelphia, and in the UK.

He had been able to obtain user names and passwords to the cameras from a web site and a list was recovered by police which showed that he had more than 3,000 IP addresses to different cameras and the passwords..

Hankers saved the recordings in files – one named “bouncing blonde” showed a couple having intercourse.

A total of 4,000 clips of people in their own homes had been saved.

One couple in the UK had been traced by police and in a victim impact statement told how they felt sick.

They expected to feel safe at home and it never occurred to them someone with sinister intentions was watching them. It had made them nervous of trusting modern technology.

The incitement charges arose from recordings he had made via his web cam of children involved in various sex acts at his instruction, as part of a game where he awarded them points for various activities.

Children exposed themselves to him and indulged in penetrative acts after he lied about his age.

Police found Hankers had used software which enabled random contact between users interested, for example, in games.

His games started off innocently enough but they soon became sexualised and footage and in some cases written accounts of what was taking place had been saved.

Hundreds of victims were believed to have been involved in Europe and in Australia where he contacted a girl aged 15.

It turned out that he had been bullied at school, cut himself off from the real world, and for a decade had spent most of his time in his bedroom on the internet.

His barrister, Andrew Green, told the court: “It is an abject lesson how those who obsessively use the internet can become detached from the real world.

“He lived in his bedroom, rarely leaving the house, and his companions were his mother and the internet.”

A decade of isolation had eroded his empathy and distorted his outlook to the point of becoming criminal, he said.

“His development and maturity has been stunted by an extraordinary level of isolation.”

Judge Rhys Rowlands said Hankers had repeatedly targeted young girls via the internet and got them to perform sex acts in front of their web cams.

He showed a degree of sophistication by being able to gain access to people’s CCTV cameras and watched them in their own homes without their knowledge.

“On any view it is an appalling invasion of their privacy,” he said.

“Such behaviour is illegal and outside the comprehension of normal, right-thinking individuals.”

The judge said his offending had been repeated over a number of years. A depressing and serious picture had emerged and Hankers had behaved in a most depraved way.

Judge Rowlands said: “I agree this case should serve as a warning to those who become obsessed with the internet.

“The picture I glean is sadly of an isolated individual spending hours alone in your bedroom accessing the internet and seeking to influence young children on it.”

The judge said Hankers had taken advantage of a significant number of children as young as 11.

He groomed his victims by encouraging and rewarding them in games which led to acts of indecency which he recorded and saved.

Judge Rowlands said voyeurism offences were the most appalling intrusion into people’s privacy.

“You gained access to cameras in their homes and took control of them,” he told Hankers.

It would clearly be a distressing, unsettling and traumatic experience for them.