By RICHARD MARSDEN, GENERAL REPORTER

Published: 12:23 GMT, 31 December 2025 | Updated: 14:33 GMT, 31 December 2025

An office clerk caught spying on workmates using the toilet has been spared jail after he blamed his lurid behaviour on being a victim of staff ‘bullying’.

Andrew Cox, 38, who is engaged to be married, rigged a mobile phone in the staff lavatory so he could film fellow workers taking comfort breaks and taped one man twice during two hours of recording.

Police were called after one of the employees at a rental company in Cheshire found the hidden phone and noticed it had been set to record.

Cox was identified as the footage also included him setting the video up and hiding the phone under a rag.

Officers subsequently seized his mobile phones and laptop and found a ‘substantial’ amount of messages and video relating to the illicit recordings.

They also found five images of extreme pornography involving men and women having sex with animals.

At Chester Magistrates’ Court Cox pleaded guilty to two charges of voyeurism and one charge of possession of extreme pornography.

He faced a maximum sentence of up to 18 months’ imprisonment but walked free after receiving a 15-week suspended term.

Office voyeur Andrew Cox, 38, who received a suspended prison sentence

In mitigation, Cox after claiming he had become 'introverted' after being bullied both and at school and by work colleagues.

He claimed the bestiality images had been shared by his manager and on a workplace WhatsApp group.

Cox arrived at court with his mother who watched proceedings from the public gallery.

The court heard police began their investigation in March 2024 when a staff member at the company - which cannot be named - found a mobile phone set to record under a rag in one of the toilet cubicles.

Heather Bell, prosecuting, said: ‘He found the phone recording and unlocked. A colleagues played back the recording and found Andrew Cox placing the phone in situ.’

The court heard one man was recorded in intimate detail using the toilet.

Ms Bell said: ‘The defendant was arrested on the next occasion he returned to the workplace and two mobile phones and a laptop were seized.

‘Whilst in custody the defendant made a full confession saying: ‘It was me’. He was also found in possession of five extreme pornographic videos, males and females engaging in sexual activity with animals.’

Cox was identified as the footage also included him setting the video up and hiding the phone under a rag

She added: ‘In addition there was a substantial amount of evidence in messages and videos in relation to the offence of voyeurism. This was not an isolated incident. It happened on multiple occasions.’