OC Computer Peeper Gets Year In Jail For Spyware
SANTA ANA (AP) — An Orange County computer repair tech was sentenced Friday to a year in jail for installing spyware on six women's computers to record their naked images for his sexual gratification, prosecutors said.
Trevor Harwell, 21, was convicted of six felony counts of computer access and fraud and ordered to complete a sex offender treatment program and five years of formal probation, spokeswoman Farrah Emami said.
Harwell illegally accessed the victims' computers while he was a technician for Rezitech Inc. to install the software, which allowed him to record live and still images of them undressing from a remote computer.
The software sent fake error messages telling users to "fix their internal sensor soon," and "try putting your laptop near hot steam for several minutes to clean the sensor," prompting some victims to take their laptops into the bathroom with them when they showered, police found.
Harwell had set up alerts to be notified when victims were using their computers.
Harwell was apprehended by Fullerton police after two of the victims, who were sisters, noticed that their computer camera was blinking irregularly.
They thought it was broken and took it to be repaired, only to learn that the blinking was due to the installation of spyware software.
The victims alerted police, who after investigating were able to identify four additional victims.
A judge will later rule whether he must register as a sex offender.
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