A sentence will be handed down in a few months for a Chatham man who has pleaded guilty to voyeurism and other crimes.
Trey Wilson, 26, of Chatham-Kent pleaded guilty in July to 13 counts of voyeurism, publishing intimate images and distribution after videotaping 16 naked men he knew at the former Goodlife Fitness in Chatham between 2014 and 2018 without their consent. The videos showed genitalia, rear ends, and the faces of 12 of the victims and were emailed to three of his friends.
During sentencing submissions in Chatham court on Friday, defence lawyer Paul Esco said that Wilson has feminine mannerisms, a learning disability, and a voyeuristic disorder and was trying to sort out his sexual identity at the time of the crimes. He said Wilson was experimenting to see if he would get aroused because he didn't know where he stood.
"Trey Wilson was a confused person," said Esco. "He is not homosexual. He is not a female."
The court was told Wilson got no sexual gratification and shared the videos with two female friends and one homosexual friend to be accepted and impress them. Esco said the charges deeply affected Wilson. He lost his job and had to move to London because of the publicity. The court also heard Wilson has a high pitched voice due to surgery on his vocal cords when he was younger and has been bullied all of his life because of it. Esco said Wilson has shown remorse for what he did and accepts full responsibility for his crimes. Esco added Wilson has also taken steps on his own to get help and the risk to re-offend is low. He told Justice Lucy Glenn he didn't want to minimize the crimes but only one victim showed up to make an impact statement.
Esco said this is an unusual and unique case.
"There are exceptional circumstances here," said Esco.
The defence is recommending six to 12 months of house arrest with a period of probation because Wilson won't survive in jail unless he's in solitary confinement 23 hours a day. Esco said it's cruel and unusual punishment to put Wilson in jail because he never posted any of the images on the internet. The Crown lawyer wants two years less a day, which is the maximum sentence in these cases, and 24 months probation with conditions because of the number of victims. The conditions are to stay away from the victims, provide a DNA sample, and forfeit his phone with the images to dispose of it.
Assistant Crown, Nick Barylko, said the crimes have had a severe impact on the victims.
"The victims are re-victimized every time these images are circulated," he said.
The court heard one victim say in his impact statement that he felt betrayed because he thought Wilson was also a member of the LGBT community. Barylko said one set of images was found by police and deleted but the other two recipients were never found and the images are still out there and could end up on web sites. He said jail is appropriate for Wilson even with his disabilities and only jail will deter future offences.
"When you see somebody you know right away if you're attracted or not," said Barylko. "It doesn't four-and-a-half years and 16 victims to find out if you're attracted to men or not. If the police didn't stop him, this would still be going on."
The Crown argued that the picture being painted in court by the defence is not a true reflection of Wilson and he understands what he did was wrong.
"Mister Wilson is not this poor individual who doesn't understand what's going on," Barylko argued.
He added Wilson has problems but is culpable.
"Good people go to jail when they violate other people's rights," he said. "We have transgender people at the Southwest Detention Centre and they never complained about being beaten up."
A publication ban doesn't allow the victims to be identified. Justice Glenn will have her decision on April 8, 2020.