SALT LAKE CITY — A registered sex offender has been charged with secretly recording tenants of a Salt Lake City home he owned and rented out.
Salt Lake City police say Larry Phillips, 69, hid cameras throughout his home in the 1900 Block of East St. Mary's Drive and recorded his tenants during moments in which they thought they were alone.
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Two tenants, who rented rooms from Phillips, reported to police finding motion-sensitive cameras in their bedrooms at the home in July. The tenants showed police the cameras and wiring throughout the walls.
A "false narrative" was created to seize the cameras and not alert Phillips. Officers told Phillips they were called to the home by the tenants who had reported stolen property.
After a search warrant was obtained in August, police found that the cameras contained video of an unknown male in the bathroom, unaware that he was being filmed.
Police later learned Phillips was classified as a registered Sex Offender after he plead guilty to two charges of forcible sexual abuse in 2002. He was also arrested in 2006 on a charge of offensive touching in Sandy.
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In September, police found over 70 items of electronic evidence from Phillips' home, along with the camera used to record the man in the bathroom. During an interview, Phillips said he had four cameras in his home for security purposees because he was worried about valuable items on the property.
After another warrant was issued, detectives searched through SD cards and flash drives seized from Phillips and found over 300 videos, with more than 90 containing voyeurism.
The victims in the videos were recorded unknowingly in the bathrooms and bedrooms, showing them in different states of undress and during sexual intercourse.
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Detectives were able to interview 13 victims and learned the videos had been recorded in Phillips' primary home on East St. Mary's Drive, along with two other homes owned by his friends. Video evidence also showed Phillips moving cameras to different locations and testing angles.
Police determined the secretly-recorded videos had been shot over several years and included females, visitors and LDS Missionaries.
Phillips turned himself in to police on Monday and was arrested on multiple of charges of Class A voyeurism and 2nd Degree felony burglary
