He was a 'pillar of the community'... but then his dark secret unravelled

To the outside world, Robert Holden presented as everything you'd want in a local councillor: approachable, kind, caring. People were seduced by his calm exterior and charitable activities. As a councillor, he was considered an upstanding member of the community. At least that was the image he tried so hard to present.

But now his mask of respectability has slipped and revealed a vile pervert beneath, exposed thanks images like this one taken on one of his many hidden cameras.

It was taken on a camera Holden had installed to secretly film his victims in his two homes for 24 hours a day. His public-facing life - as a councillor in Calderdale, west Yorkshire - far cry from the seediness he hid from the world, YorkshireLive reports.

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For 15 years, Holden managed to keep his sinister activities hidden from his unsuspecting victims and those who voted him onto Calderdale Council. In secret, he watched back the footage he had taken of the 25 women, one man and one child, using his facilities in his bathroom. He recorded sexual activity with some of them and even captured footage of them in his hot tub during parties he threw.

Sickeningly, Holden recorded himself masturbating over images and videos he had taken covertly and even kept some of them for his own pleasure, in folders with titles including: "[victim's name] f*****" and "[victim's initials] stripping."

When he was doing this, Holden was a completely different person to the one he pretended to be in public. His depraved fantasies and crimes would go unknown for 14 years. He manipulated his community, friends and family. His barrister said he was known for his charity fundraising and was even given a Regional Innovation Award in 2014.

Even when he was eventually caught, Holden gaslighted his victims - many of whom did not even know he had been secretly filming their most intimate moments. He attempted to take his own life while one of them was subjected to vile hate from those who believed she was out to ruin his life.

Another woman told how she comforted him, believing him to be in need of help before she was called by West Yorkshire Police and forced to go through "image after image after image" of herself.

As she faced him in court, the woman said: "I asked if you needed help. I even offered to write a statement of support for your character. A few months later I got a call from West Yorkshire Police. I attended alone at the police station that day and was handed a folder to identify images and asked (if) I had consented to being filmed."

"There was image after image after image. I had an overwhelming feeling of wanting t pick up the girl in the pictures and tell her everything was going to me OK. Not only did you violate my most intimate moments but you smashed my heart into pieces when I realised you weren't the person I thought you were.

"You took the heart of my life where I believed good people existed."

Even when his crimes were found out, Holden showed no remorse and sought to evade justice. He booked a one-way ticket to Cape Verde "no doubt" knowing of the extensive extradition process the authorities would have to go through to get to him, Her Honour Judge McKone said as she sentenced him at Bradford Crown Court on Friday.

While he was sunning it up and staying at an AirBnB in the African country, Holden's victims were forced to deal with the impact of what he had done to them. One of them told him: "The utter lack of accountability you have shown is disgusting."

However, after months of appeals, Holden was finally extradited and put before a court. He has been remanded into custody ever since and went on to admit 31 offences of voyeurism and seven offences of computer misuse. His reign of terror finally over.

But Holden still was not able to face the music. Even as he was jailed for six years and two months, he sat in the dock, his face to the floor. Holden was accompanied by just one dock officer as his campaign, and the ordeal for 27 women, one man and one child, finally came to an end.

He will have to serve two-thirds of his sentence in custody. Holden will be on the Sex Offenders' Register for life and also subjected to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order indefinitely. Holden was led from the dock, leaving his victims to deal with the effects of his depravity.

One of them has said in her victim impact a statement: "His predatory behaviour reveals a sense of sexual entitlement and his enjoyment of dominating women without their consent... This sexual predator must be stopped using women to fulfil his sexual desires."

Following the sentencing, West Yorkshire Police released these grainy images showing Holden in front of the cameras that caught his unsuspecting victims. The hidden secret he kept for so many years - and the evidence that resulted in his downfall.

After the hearing, Detective Inspector Jarrod McSharry, of Calderdale District Police, said: "It is hard to think of a worse or more devious abuse of trust than that committed by Robert Holden against his victims. Holden used his skills in IT to set up elaborate spying equipment which he used to commit multiple voyeurism offences against large numbers of persons who had no idea they were being filmed.

"Victims were horrified to discover how Holden had abused their basic right to privacy and dignity by setting up cameras for his own perverted gratification. I want to thank those victims for their bravery in supporting what became a significant and long running investigation to unravel Holden's extensive offending.

"We continue to urge all victims of sexual offending to come forwards. All reports of sexual offences are treated with the utmost seriousness and fully investigated by specialist officers, with the needs of victims are at the heart of every investigation."