Window-fitter videoed himself masturbating in customers' homes and sent videos to victims

Jason Boyd (31) from Camagh Road, Keady, Co. Armagh, carried out the sick acts in many homes, north and south of the border, while installing doors and windows.

He would wait a number of weeks before sending the videos to his disgusted victims who were terrified as they had no idea who had sent them.

In some cases, he even masturbated onto pictures of his victims.

One family told the Sunday World they were "tearing their hair out" trying to find out who was behind the sinister acts.

Boyd, who was also caught with child pornography in Monaghan last year, refused to comment when our reporter approached him in Tyrone this week, after he was convicted on five counts of exposing himself to cause alarm or distress, and of improper use of a public communications network, at Dungannon Magistrates Court.

Boyd, who is single and lives with his parents, avoided jail after getting a probation order but is due in court in Monaghan over the coming weeks, to be sentenced for similar offences in the Republic.

The Sunday World can reveal that his sick crimes came to light when a Monaghan family identified him after he sent a mum and her 17-year-old daughter his vile videos recorded in their home.

He had set up a fake Facebook profile under the name David Masterson, and contacted the family in January last year.

A source close to the family said: "The mother opened up the video and it was a five second clip of a guy masturbating. The really shocking part was it was into their sink in their bathroom. You can imagine their shock.

"They couldn't believe it. It's bad enough a guy sending you a sick video masturbating into a sink but when you figure out its your own bathroom. They've had to change their bathroom since."

The couple's 17-year-old daughter then found she had received a sick video to her own Facebook Messenger.

"She came back and said 'I'm after getting a video from him as well' - it was 30 seconds.

"He showed off the bathroom in that video but you couldn't see his face, it completely freaked the family out. He sent some disgusting text messages as well."

They contacted the gardaí who said that getting the IP address from Facebook could take months.

"They had no idea who it could be that came into their house and did this."

Knowing it could take a long time to get the IP address, the family decided to do what they could to investigate themselves.

They figured it must have ­happened between October 2019 and January 2020 as they had installed a new shower in October.

"They were wondering if it was a delivery driver who came in through the window or someone local. They were disgusted ­knowing someone was in their house doing what they did."

One of them was Jason Boyd. They searched for him on Facebook and he became a potential lead, but he lived near Keady in Armagh, outside the jurisdiction.

"He fitted the build of the guy in the video. The gardaí said it could take months so the mother decided to interact a bit with "David Masterson" on Messenger and see if he'd give away his real identity.

"He sent more videos which weren't nice and said he wanted the mother to send videos and pictures.

"She said I'm not going to send anything to you but kept talking to see if he'd slip up.

"He sent her something he had written up on his laptop and screenshotted it. Up in the top left corner was an Outlook open in Jason Boyd's name."

They went to gardaí who were confident they had found their man but they had a problem as he lived outside the jurisdiction.

However, he was arrested after doing a job in Monaghan. He had two phones, which had the videos he had sent to the Monaghan family, as well as multiple other videos from other homes.

Sources told the Sunday World he had even recorded himself masturbating in the home in Monaghan he had just worked on minutes before being arrested.

Investigators also found child abuse images on his phone. He co-operated with gardaí and made full admissions - and is awaiting sentencing in Monaghan on charges of sending indecent messages by phone to two victims and possession of child pornography.

His phone revealed he had multiple victims in the south and the north and gardai contacted the PSNI who were able to identify five victims in the North including a woman who received a video which showed a man in her home masturbating onto a photo of her on her student ID card.

Four other victims in the North received similar videos. Prosecutor Briege Gilmore told Dungannon Magistrates Court that one video "depicted a male masturbating over [the victim's] photographic ID card while in the home address of the complaint. He ejaculated over the photo ID card of the complainant. The complainant had no knowledge and no idea of how the defendant had gained entry to her property."

The PSNI interviewed Boyd and he returned a week later and identified four more victims.

"All the complainants had work carried at their home address by the defendant."

Defence barrister Blaine Nugent said Boyd had been diagnosed with autism and had trouble interacting with people.

"The core problem here is that he can't talk to people, he doesn't know how to communicate and that has led to the offending behaviour. It is a bizarre way to communicate and an illegal way to communicate. It has had a significant impact on the victims in this case and he is cognisant of what he put [them] through," the lawyer said.

Deputy District Judge Seán O'Hare said Boyd's actions showed a "serious pattern of behaviour" and were "offences of a most alarming and distressing" nature. The judge said Boyd was "sexually aroused from his behaviour in the victim's houses".

"He has no appreciation of boundaries, he behaved in a clearly self-interested, self-gratification with no thought whatsoever for the impact or consequences on his victims.

"This behaviour continued across the border. You know the effect of your offending on other people but this was something you completely disregarded at the time you did it."

The judge said Boyd's offences met the threshold for imprisonment but he needed help to rehabilitate and was willing to receive ongoing treatment to help him stop reoffending.

Boyd was fired from his job in the window company after he was charged but has since got a new job. He is living with his parents and no longer uses pornography.

He was given a two-year probation order with strict ­conditions including being unable to access the internet, not staying in a house overnight with children or having unsupervised access to children, and not developing any personal relationships without the approval of his probation officer.

He was also placed on the sex offenders register for seven years and order to stay away from his victims.

The judge warned Boyd that if he breaches his probation order he will find himself behind bars.

One of the families targeted by Boyd, who asked not to be named, told the Sunday World they were glad he was finally being exposed after putting them through hell.

"People should be aware, if you have somebody doing work on your house make sure they're not up to anything. We've got cameras installed now.

"Beforehand if anyone came to my house to do work I'd say, 'there's the kettle' and head off and leave them to it but this kind of thing erodes your trust in people.

"We live in a world where we just don't know what people are up to."