Postal worker who pleasured himself through letterbox caught on CCTV making unwanted delivery

Last August a man who was having work done on his late mother’s house at Dairies Road in Monea became suspicious after observing a “puddle” on the floor just inside the front door of the house, the court heard.

He installed a CCTV camera to identify the culprit and footage showed a Parcelforce van pulling up outside the house one lunchtime. The man walked to the door and placed his private parts in the letterbox on the front door. On the recording he then appeared to masturbate through the letterbox.

The incident lasted a few minutes, before the man got back into the van and drove off.

On a second occasion a few days later the man noticed the camera as he was carrying out the sex act.

After police examined the footage Camblin was interviewed and denied urinating, but admitted masturbating.

Describing the act as “spontaneous”, he could offer no other explanation.

A prosecutor told the court that the injured party estimated the cost of this incident to be £5,406, but deputy district judge Philip Mateer questioned this amount. The property owner had not provided the court with any invoices.

He claimed that he had paid over £1,000 to replace the door, had employed the services of a cleaning doctor and that the CCTV had cost over £500 to install.

The owner further claimed that he had been unable to rent the property from February to October last year as a result of this “problem”, losing out on rent of £450 a month.

Defending solicitor, Rory Gillen, told the court that his client had worked for Parcelforce for 21 years and had never had any issues with the police before this incident.

Admitting that it was a “bizarre” case that fell outside sentencing guidelines, the solicitor said that Camblin had been married for 17 years.

Mr Gillen confirmed that the defendant had initially been suspended from work and later resigned. He is currently being supported financially by his wife.

The solicitor said that Camblin couldn’t really explain what had happened, but suggested that work-related stress may have been a “contributing factor”.

Deputy district judge, Philip Mateer, observed that the defendant was entitled to credit for entering guilty pleas, but told the court that the chances of him contesting the charges had been “remote”, given the CCTV evidence.

The judge said that, in the pre-sentence report, it was quite clear that Camblin had expressed “enormous shame and regret” for his behaviour, before adding that the probation service had tried to find out why he would act in such a “bizarre and distasteful fashion”.

Describing the set of circumstances as “simply inexplicable”, Mr Mateer noted that it was not a one-off, rather a “repeat gratification”.

The judge said that he did believe the defendant should pay compensation, but ruled that £500 was an appropriate figure.

Mr Matter said that, given the “unusual circumstances” of the criminal damage, it was important to place Camblin under the supervision of the Probation Service to make sure “nothing has been missed”.

The judge then imposed a Combination Order, consisting of 12 months on probation and 100 hours of community service.