Shower Spy: Update

An ex-Cambridge student turned business studies lecturer at University College Birmingham was found guilty of voyeurism this week for planting a spy camera in a bathroom to watch female students shower.

The jury of a trial which began in March and was covered by The Tab ruled that Dr Paul Powen Hwang, 33, hid the camera in an air freshener in the bathroom of a house he rented to a group of female students.

The camera was discovered when the members of the household became aware that the air freshener "began to move".

The tenant then dismantled the 'air freshener' and was "shocked and disgusted" to discover a digital camera.

Jess Howard, who is studying for the Higher Education course in Business and Marketing where she was taught by Hwang said "It's shocking that someone you put so much trust in would just abuse it in this way. Lecturers are meant to be people you can trust, but Hwang totally overstepped the mark."

Hwang has earned himself a place on the sex offender's register for 5 years and a three-year community order.

Judge Henderson said: "It is not surprising to hear that the victim of these offences was shocked and disgusted, and very frightened that images would be saved, might be passed on to other people or put on the internet.

"The most simple way to commit these offences is to creep up on people in the woods or look through their window, but these offences were a significant level above that as you were in a position of trust."

He added: "In your work life you were a very pleasant person, but you had this very unpleasant secret which none of your colleagues knew about. You will rightly be the subject of very public humiliation."

Hwang was also banned from owning any covert camera equipment, including a camera mobile phone, and put on the sex offenders' register for five years.

James Turner, defending, said: 'He feels he has ruined his career, as academic circles are very tight, and reputations are everything.'

The Australian national had quit his post in Birmingham four months ago for unknown reasons.

Dr.Hwang had been a PhD research student at our very own Cambridge Institute for Manufacturing, where he looked at the "Intersection between medicine, law and finance, especially in Australia, the UK and the US". He also had an Msc in Business Management Research from Oxford.