News, views and top stories in your inbox. Don't miss our must-read newsletter Sign up Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

A sick McDonald's worker secretly filmed thousands of female customers - including children - using the toilet at the fast food restaurant, a court has heard.

Michael Gaffney hid a camera inside the women's bathroom at the branch in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, to record footage of unsuspecting visitors.

His "morbid" interest became a "compulsion" as he filmed hundreds of videos of women - and kids as young as seven - in the toilet cubicle, the court was told.

It was only several years later that the 56-year-old's recording 'campaign' came to an end after a horrified woman discovered she was being filmed.

Now, Gaffney, a married dad-of-two, has been jailed for 16 months after admitting a string of charges related to his hidden camera crime.

Police had examined the McDonald's employee's computer after his arrest and found 746 images 'of women being filmed covertly in a toilet'.

(Image: Stoke Sentinel)

The officers also discovered 47 indecent images of children, including a movie of a man having sex with a child, Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court heard.

The court was told that Gaffney worked at McDonald's in the Hanley area of the city.

Staffordshire Police were called in on November 18, 2014 after one customer raised the alarm.

It was not known exactly when the recording device was hidden in the women's toilet, but officers believed it had been there for some time.

Peter McCartney, prosecuting, said: “There were videos of females using the toilet. The device was placed by a man wearing a McDonald's uniform."

Gaffney, of Cross Heath, Stoke on Trent, pleaded guilty to 12 charges of voyeurism and five offences of possessing indecent images of children.

Jason Holt, mitigating, said: “He accepts he moved on to some sort of morbid fascination that became something of a compulsion."

The court heard that Gaffney, who cares for his wife who is blind in one eye and losing sight in the other, should be spared jail.

(Image: Google)

But Judge Timothy Smith disagreed and said the offences were so serious that a jail sentence had to be imposed.

He said: “Police found an accumulation, over a number of years, of videos you had taken secretly of females using the lavatories at McDonald's, including children as young as seven.

“The 746 video movies you logged on your computers, of women being filmed covertly in a toilet, demonstrates a campaign that you undertook over a number of years.

"It was a campaign that was deliberate, planned and executed by you.

“You then stored them carefully in a log and categorised them. The purpose was to go back and look at them as you wished.

“Your downloading and searching indicates some interest in children and in young girls.

“You did this for the purpose of your own sexual gratification, although that is something you continue to deny.

“You invaded and violated very private actions being undertaken by the ladies and children concerned.

"They were entitled to feel safe and not be pried upon by anybody. You took photos of them at their most vulnerable."

Gaffney will also be placed on the sex offenders' register for 10 years.

After the sentencing, McDonald's stressed the safety of its customers was its "top priority".

A spokesman said: “We have cooperated fully with the police investigation."