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Penticton man caught for peeping in women's showers

A Penticton man who has a prior conviction for voyerism was once again caught peeping.
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News from the Penticton courthouse

A Penticton man who has a prior conviction for voyeurism was once again caught peeping, this time in the women’s showers at the Barefoot Beach Resort in Penticton.

Skye Dylan Shillitto, 40, was fined $1,000 and received three years probation after pleading guilty to one count of secretly observing or recording nudity in a private place in Penticton Provincial Court Monday.

On July 26, 2015 around 3:20 p.m. an off-duty cop heard screaming coming from the campground at the resort.

A woman, who can only be identified as M.G., was screaming for help. The officer , along with multiple eye-witnesses, observed a man, later identified as Shillitto, run from the women’s showers before locking himself in another washroom nearby.

M.G., who was in Penticton for an annual camping trip with friends and family, outlined the emotional toll she felt in a victim impact statement read during Shillitto’s sentencing hearing.

“This incident made me shy away from my husband, even though he wanted to make me to feel safe and secure. It created a heavy space between us. I put on a brave face and did my best to bury my feelings of objectification and helplessness,” the court heard.

Shillitto was an employee of the Barefoot Beach Resort at the time, working as a maintenance worker.

The woman told the officer that she was drying off in the shower facility at the campground when she observed a cell phone in a black case taking pictures or video from under the stall.

When confronted by an on-duty officer who was called to the scene, Shillitto said he was an employee at the resort and was inside the women’s washroom to tidy up without any knowledge that someone was inside. Shillitto had no cleaning supplies with him and was found in possession of a phone matching the description the victim gave.

After the woman confronted Shillitto he immediately ran to the handicapped bathroom and locked himself in the stall for several minutes, enough time to erase any evidence, Crown counsel Ann Lerchs suggested.

“One concern from the victim was her concern that Shillitto could have had the opportunity to send the picture he had just taken of her by email or other means to home computers or emails,” said Lerchs.

A search through the pictures on Shillitto’s cell phone uncovered “numerous” nude photographs depicting women showering or going to the washroom, Crown said, several of which appeared to have been taken from under stalls at the women’s shower facilities at the Barefoot Beach Resort.

The manager at the resort told police that Shillitto was in fact a maintenance worker though he had no reason to be in the women’s bathroom or shower facilities.

Shillitto has a previous conviction from 2012, where he pleaded guilty to a voyeurism charge after getting caught in the women’s bathroom in Cherry Lane Shopping Centre in similar circumstances. Shillitto received a sentence of 18 months of probation for the 2012 offence, as well as community supervision and received counselling, which Lerchs said he “appeared to benefit” from until the incident in July.

“I do not feel good or I am not proud of what I’ve done at all. I’m not a bad person, I’ve always considered myself to be hard working and friendly,” Shillitto told the court, noting that he is already seeing a counsellor. “I know with some hard work I can regain my integrity, and re-focus my life in a positive direction.”

Shillitto was banned from public beaches, campgrounds and women’s washrooms or shower facilities, except for a unisex outhouse on the seventh hole of a local golf course where he now works as a groundskeeper.

“The (pre-sentence) reports make it clear you’ve seen this sort of behaviour coming. Now what you’ve got to learn is to keep a lid on it,” said Judge Gail Sinclair prior to imposing the fine and probation.