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A man hacked into people’s home security systems so he could record them having sex.

Steven Hankers stored more than 4,000 video clips he had made by accessing people’s private CCTV systems.

His victims, who were from all over the world, knew nothing of what he was secretly doing.

The pervert filmed couples in their bedrooms and children undressing.

When he was arrested, he had 16 active cameras hooked up to his computer, spying on people across Europe and in the USA.

He catalogued the videos he made under file names like ‘Bouncing Blonde’.

Hankers, 32, also used his technological expertise to contact children through web cams, who he persuaded to carry out sex acts by lying to them about his age.

Police arrested him when they were investigating the allegations of inciting children to commit sex acts, and found his cache of videos, the Daily Post reports.

(Image: North Wales Police image)

At Mold Crown Court, prosecutor Simon Rogers said Hankers was able to get access to cameras people had installed to make them feel safer in their own homes.

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

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

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 in their own home and it never occurred to them that 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.

Hankers’ 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.”

Hankers, of Melyd Avenue in Wrexham, 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.

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.”

His offending had been repeated over a number of years.

“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 the 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 said.

Hankers was jailed for six years and ordered to sign the sex offenders’ register for life.