{"id":548669,"date":"2026-07-14T05:25:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T05:25:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/548669\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T05:25:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T05:25:18","slug":"i-hunted-the-men-who-secretly-film-their-wives-and-share-footage-online","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/548669\/","title":{"rendered":"I hunted the men who secretly film their wives and share footage online"},"content":{"rendered":"

Men secretly filmed their wives and girlfriends and posted footage online, before boasting about their recordings.<\/p>\n

Others targeted strangers, with one hiding a camera on a walking route in the hope of catching women urinating.<\/p>\n

In new BBC documentary Hunting the Spycammers, Jess Davies uncovers the dark online network of hidden cameras in bedrooms, bathrooms, changing rooms and other private spaces.<\/p>\n

Charity Refuge<\/a> reported a 78% rise in technology-facilitated abuse referrals, while Welsh Women’s Aid<\/a> said the scale of the problem is hard to quantify because most victims don’t even know it’s happening.<\/p>\n

“What is really disturbing is how many of the perpetrators were filming and sharing content of people – mostly women – that were their loved ones,” TV presenter Davies said.<\/p>\n

“It really highlights how anyone can be targeted with this harm.”<\/p>\n

During her investigation, the 33-year-old discovered the range of cheap spycam technology available, such as cameras disguised as everyday objects such as pens, air fresheners and plugs.<\/p>\n

The topic is personal to Davies, who grew up in Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, as she was 15 when images of her in her underwear were shared around her town.<\/p>\n

She had exchanged photos with a boy she fancied, and he had forwarded them on to others without her consent.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Jess<\/p>\n

Jess Davies says it “feels like these women are being hunted down and preyed upon” [BBC]<\/p>\n

“It felt so extremely violating, to think someone you cared for could do this to me. It makes you feel worthless,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Seeing similar images of other victims shared in the forum that we infiltrated brought those feelings of betrayal back and made me question where my image ended up.<\/p>\n

“Could it have made its way to one of these forums?”<\/p>\n

Davies said some dismiss the impact of such actions as harmless or “just banter”.<\/p>\n

She added: “For others, like the voyeurs we mention in our film, they felt if the victim never knew they were filmed without consent then there was no problem.<\/p>\n

“It really highlights how dismissed online harms and image-abuse is.<\/p>\n

“Behind each image or video is a person who has to live with that betrayal for the rest of their life.”<\/p>\n

For the documentary, Davies teamed up with investigative journalist Liam Connell, who has previously infiltrated secretive online networks.<\/p>\n

They gained access to a voyeur website – a hub from which users link to encrypted chat groups – and uncovered people openly exchanging tips on secretly filming people and boasting about their recordings.<\/p>\n

“It’s a never-ending cycle of mass distribution of non-consensual content of women,” she said.<\/p>\n

“It feels like these women are being hunted down and preyed upon.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Jess Davies was shocked by much of what she found [BBC\/Rock Paper Productions]<\/p>\n

Davies also confronted the owner of the forum they infiltrated.<\/p>\n

She said: “He told us he regularly checks content and takes down non-consensual content, but looking at the evidence we’d found, it seemed little thought had gone into the long-lasting harm this content has on the victims.<\/p>\n

“It felt as if the people who had been filmed without their consent had been totally overlooked and dismissed, their consent wasn’t needed.<\/p>\n

“In fact, it was the lack of consent which motivated many of the spycammers.”<\/p>\n

Davies hopes the documentary raises awareness of the harm caused by hidden spy cameras and reinforces that abuses of privacy and “consent should never be normalised”.<\/p>\n

Privacy and safety<\/p>\n

In the UK, filming someone is not automatically a crime.<\/p>\n

For example, in public spaces, people are often allowed to film what is visible to them.<\/p>\n

Secret recording becomes a crime for a number of reasons, including if it is voyeurism<\/a>, takes place in an area where the person being filmed can expect privacy, or is done to cause harassment or alarm.<\/p>\n

Domestic abuse charity Refuge is calling for tougher regulation of hidden surveillance devices and better police training to identify and investigate their use.<\/p>\n

“What is especially worrying is how accessible and affordable these devices are, allowing more perpetrators to weaponise them as a form of control,” said its policy and public affairs manager Bo Bottomley.<\/p>\n

It has seen a 78% rise in referrals for cases of technology-facilitated abuse in the last year.<\/p>\n

But the charity said nearly every survivor it supports has experienced some form of technology-facilitated abuse, and there has been a rise in reports of hidden cameras and microphones being used in homes.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson from Welsh Women’s Aid said “this form of covert surveillance can strip away a person’s sense of privacy and safety”.<\/p>\n

The charity warned that the harm extends far beyond the initial recording, with shared images and videos having a devastating impact on survivors’ lives and leaving many feeling unsafe, even in their own homes.<\/p>\n

“This form of abuse is particularly challenging to quantify. Many survivors will not be aware that this is happening to them,” they added.<\/p>\n

It called on tech companies to act quickly to remove shared spycam footage and provide information to police to help identify those responsible.<\/p>\n

The UK government has been asked for comment.<\/p>\n

Hunting the Spycammers will be available on the BBC’s YouTube channels and the BBC iPlayer on Wednesday 15 July<\/p>\n

More top stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Men secretly filmed their wives and girlfriends and posted footage online, before boasting about their recordings. Others targeted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":548670,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[232509,93,61,60,232506,270,232508,232507],"class_list":["post-548669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-charity-refuge","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-jess-davies","tag-movies","tag-paper-productions","tag-women-urinating"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=548669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548669\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/548670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}