A former Brantford-area teacher and school administrator was handed a conditional sentence Thursday for various voyeurism-related offences.

Brent Hachborn will spend eight months under house arrest. He will also serve a two-year probation term.

Among other jobs, Hachborn once worked as a teacher at James Hillier Public School in Brantford.

After he moved to another school, a camera was discovered in the school’s staff washroom

Investigators later learned that Hachborn used three different cameras in a rotation. They had been there for about a year before anybody noticed – containing dozens of videos and 1,300 photographs of adult men in total. There were no images of women or children, nor any evidence that images of women or children had ever been deleted by the device.

Hachborn was arrested in 2016 and pleaded guilty to voyeurism earlier this year.

Thursday’s conditional sentence was what had been recommended by Hachborn’s lawyer. The Crown was seeking 15 to 18 months of jail time.

In delivering his sentence, Justice Robert Gee said there were several factors working in Hachborn’s favour – including a lack of a criminal history, his voluntary confession on the day of his arrest, that he has taken counselling and that an expert considers him to have a low risk of reoffending.

“There are consequences to Mr. Hachborn’s actions that go well beyond … any sentence I impose on him,” he said.

Gee also noted that the sentence he delivered is significantly longer than what is normal for voyeurism offenders.

Many of the people who packed a Brantford courtroom for Thursday’s hearing seemed disappointed with the outcome, as they had been hoping Hachborn would spend time in jail.

Nancy Hunsley, a retired teacher who had two sons at James Hillier, was one member of that group.

“This is ridiculous,” she told reporters.

“He’s not paying a price.”

Hunsley said the house arrest does provide some measure of solace, because it means she and her sons won’t run into Hachborn while out in the community – as both she and one of her sons had, separately, since his arrest.

“I didn’t know what to do – I couldn’t speak to him,” she said.

“It’s just such a betrayal.”

With reporting by Marc Venema