Pool cleaner 'sexted' his clients

A Sydney pool cleaner is facing up to three years in jail for sending to lewd text messages and graphic videos to several women including his clients.

Peter Sheather, 41, pleaded guilty last month to harassing several different women with sexually explicit text messages, making him one of Australia's first "sexters" to face conviction.

Police raided Sheather's Cammeray home in April, seizing laptop computers, mobile phones and documents before charging him with nine counts of using a carriage service to menace, harass or offend.

One of the women Sheather harassed was 44-year-old Debbie who told A Current Affairshe wanted to share her story despite feeling embarrassed by the situation.

Her true identity protected, Debbie told A Current Affair how she met Sheather on dating website where he called himself "Rick".

While they never met in person, Sheather would have a profound effect on Debbie through the explicit and vile text messages he sent her after several weeks of casual texting.

Then one day he sent her a photo of a naked man followed by a 40 second video.

"I remember holding the phone shaking my immediate response to him was: 'Don't ever contact me again you disgusting pig'," Debbie told A Current Affair.

"I felt as though someone else shouldn't have the right to disturb my everyday life and harass me and put this in front of me," she recalled before she went to the police.

Many of the other victims were female clients of the SwimArt Rosebay and Pool Doctor Services in Roseville where Sheather worked as a cleaner and maintenance man.

Sheather used a new phone registered under a different name to text his female clients, writing to one client "I'd love to f--- you in your pool,"; "Shower time. Wanna join me honey," he wrote to another.

Another of his victims told A Current Affair: "I felt violated even though he hadn't done anything physical to me by putting this in front of me he would have known how I'd react and feel offended."

Legal expert Sam Macedone said Sheather could expect to face three years behind bars for his harassing texts.

"If you send a text message on your iPhone… you have to remember you are committing a crime and it's very serious because it carries a jail term," Mr Macedone said.

Sheather pleaded guilty to all nine counts and will be sentenced in August.

Source: A Current Affair
Author: Nicholas McCallum, Approving editor: Martin Zavan