Swansea man sentenced to jail after watching, recording teen girls in bathroom

A 66-year-old Swansea man was sentenced to the maximum allowable jail term after being convicted in Fall River District Court last week of using false two-way mirrors to watch and record two teenage girls, who were temporarily living in his home, Bristol County District Attorney Thomas M. Quinn III announced.

Gerald Caron pleaded guilty to charges of Possession of Child Pornography and two counts of Photographing Sexual or Intimate Parts Without Consent. He was sentenced by Judge Katie Rayburn to maximum jail sentence of two-and-a-half years, to be followed by five years of supervised probation.

In January 2020, the defendant offered to let two sisters, aged 18 and 15, live at his residence on Stevens Road. The sisters had known the defendant for many years and had recently moved out of their family home. The sisters stayed in a spare bedroom that the defendant created for them, and they used a separate bathroom from the one the defendant used. The defendant’s bedroom abutted the sisters’ separate bathroom. Over the course of the next five months, the sisters grew suspicious of the defendant’s behavior. They believed the defendant went to his bedroom whenever they took a shower, and they heard noises coming from behind the wall supporting the bathroom mirror. As the defendant typically locked his bedroom door, the sisters were unable to determine what was behind the bathroom wall and mirror.

On June 12, 2020, the sisters left the house to spend the night with their respective friends. The older sister, however, returned to the house to retrieve belongings. She noticed the defendant had left his bedroom door open, and decided to look around the room. She entered the defendant’s bedroom closet and saw a black towel hanging on the closet wall abutting the bathroom wall. She raised the towel and saw that it covered a two-way mirror looking directly into the sisters’ bathroom. She then left the house and reported her findings to Swansea Police.

Four days later, Swansea Police spoke with the defendant at the house. The defendant explained to detectives that he adored the sisters, wished they were his own, and created a bedroom for them since they did not have their own rooms growing up. After detectives explained concerns that the older sister had concerning a bathroom mirror, the defendant allowed the detectives to enter the house. The defendant showed the detectives an upstairs bathroom which did not have a two-way mirror. He initially denied having another bathroom in the house but eventually admitted to having one and led detectives to it. Detectives also went into the defendant’s bedroom and entered his closet, which matched the older sister’s description. Detectives lifted the towel and saw directly into the sisters’ bathroom. They also saw a handheld video camera mounted to a pole in the center of the two-way mirror.

Detectives obtained a search warrant for the defendant’s house and executed it that evening. Detectives saw that the closet doors were lined with a black plastic covering used to block light from going inside the closet. They saw that black electrical tape covered exterior buttons and lights on the camera so that it would not be noticed through the two-way mirror. After uncovering the black towel on the mirror, detectives saw that the camera pointed at the bathroom shower and toilet. Detectives entered the sisters’ bathroom and found an additional mirror on the wall above a vanity. Behind that mirror, detectives found a false back that covered a plastic threaded camera mount and peep holes where the camera would face. Detectives also inspected the sisters’ bedrooms on the second floor of the house. They located a full-length mirror in the older sister’s bedroom, which was in fact a two-way mirror with a false back hiding two camera mounts and two peep holes. The camera mounts and peep holes were accessible from the defendant’s upstairs bathroom.

Swansea Police Detective Jonathan Boyd led the investigation and Assistant District Attorney Jose Vasquez prosecuted the case.

“The sentences imposed by the court holds the defendant accountable for his bizarre and perverted conduct,” District Attorney Quinn said. “I want to thank Swansea Police for their quick and thorough work on this case.”