Wife jailed over secret filming

Rosemary Foxall was arrested after videos were found following a fire

A teaching assistant who helped her husband secretly film young girls at their West Midlands home has been jailed for two-and-a-half years.

Rosemary Foxall, 49, from Brownhills, was found guilty of 10 charges of making and possessing indecent images.

She prepared baths for the girls, while her husband Martin - who has since killed himself - secretly filmed them by using hidden cameras.

Judge Nicholas Webb said Foxall had "fully assisted" her husband.

He said the couple had offered their victims, who cannot be identified, incentives such as toys, discos and swimming pools with water slides to come to their home which the girls found "impossible to resist".

They were then filmed through a spy hole above a bath and by a camera hidden under a pile of clothes in a bedroom.

Stay over

Foxall was arrested after the videos were found following a fire at their home in July 2008.

The court heard that girls were invited over regularly to swim or play on the couple's waterslide.

They would also stay over when going with them on trips early the next day.

One girl, in a police interview played to the court, said that when they got changed in the couple's bedroom, they could hear Mr Foxall moving around in the loft where one of the hidden cameras was.

She said she also saw cameras in their bedroom - one on top of the wardrobe and another poking out of a pile of clothes.

Mrs Foxall told the trial her husband had been "overpowering, obnoxious and controlling" and that she had not been aware the girls were being filmed.

Sex aids

Judge Webb, speaking before sentencing at Wolverhampton Crown Court, said pornography and sex aids were also left "lying about" for the children to see.

He said although the secret films were recorded on to VHS tape and had probably not been distributed, the victims could never be sure the footage would not be circulated on the internet in future.

Foxall was also placed on the sex offenders register and banned from working with children.

Det Insp Gordon Roberts, of West Midlands Police, said the force was delighted with the sentence.

"This case involved two respected members of the community who exploited their position to target young girls invited to their home," he said.

He thanked the victims for helping prosecutors and also thanked West Midlands Fire Service for reporting their findings.