A 26-year-old man who took a video of a naked woman while she slept has been jailed.

A judge told Daniel Tiernan, “This was a betrayal by you.”

The unsuspecting woman knew nothing about what he had done until she came across his mobile phone by chance and decided “to have bit of a nose”.

She found a 25-second video on it showing her saying asleep in her own bed. 

Peter Killen, prosecuting, told the court the video showed the woman was lying with her back to the camera and the duvet she was under was pulled up exposing her naked body.

She reported the matter to the police and said she had been asleep and had not consented to being filmed.

In an impact statement the woman described herself as “mortified and betrayed. I feel messed up in my head.”

She is on medication for depression and anxiety and had been worried that the footage might have been posted online. She said she felt very traumatised, said Mr Killen.

Tiernan, of North Road, Tranmere, pleaded guilty to sexual assault.

Jailing him for 16 months Judge David Aubrey, QC, said that there was no suggestion he had distributed the footage but there had been the possibility that he might.

He said that the victim’s fears that he might have distributed it or if she had not found it whether he might have gone on to do so underlined the seriousness of the offence.

“She was asleep in her own bed and in the judgement of the court was particularly vulnerable.”

Judge Aubrey said, “That was a betrayal of trust and in the judgement of the court it was an extreme betrayal.

“You had violated her, you had invaded her privacy in the most serious of ways.  It is clearly understandable that when she observed what you had recorded she felt deeply betrayed and mortified.”

Tiernan initially denied the offence and only pleaded guilty on the first day of the trial.

Judge Aubrey ordered him to sign on the Sex Offenders Register for ten years and imposed a restraining order to last the same length of time.

David Birrell, defending, said that Tiernan is in work though his employers were unaware of the court proceedings.

“At the time he was abusing controlled drugs on an almost daily basis but he has now addressed that drug problem.

“He voluntarily sectioned himself at Clatterbridge Hospital and was referred to Wirral Ways to Recovery and through their assistance has managed to rid himself of drug habit to his credit.”

Mr Birrell added that Tiernan is a “troubled young man with mental health and emotional issues and he attempted suicide last year.”