Teesside mum fears she has been mistakenly linked to a paedophile

Dec 1 2008 Evening Gazette

A Stockton mum-of-three fears her window was smashed because she shares the same surname as a sex offender on her street.

But Colleen Waterhouse says she is no relation to Andrew Peter Waterhouse, who is facing jail this week for spying on teenage girls as they undressed at a swimming pool.

The mum was just getting ready to go to work when a missile was thrown through her living room window at around 4.30pm on Friday, November 21.

“I just heard a big crack,” she said. “I opened the blinds and the front pane had gone. It was a bit of a shock.

“My children were in the room. My little girl was very upset and my youngest son was shaken up. But when I went outside I couldn’t see anybody.”

Colleen, who works at the University Hospital of North Tees, lives with her three children, James, 11, Matthew, nine, and Elizabeth, three, on Etherley Walk, Hardwick, Stockton.

She said when police came to investigate the incident they told her she may have been mistakenly targeted for having the same surname as Andrew Peter Waterhouse.

“They thought that was the reason for this. I’d never had any problems before his court case,” she said.

As reported, Andrew Waterhouse, who also lives in Etherley Walk, admitted voyeurism when he appeared at Teesside Magistrates’ Court last month and is awaiting sentencing on Wednesday.

The court heard the 42-year-old used a shaving mirror to spy on a group of girls aged 13 and 14 as they undressed at Splash swimming baths, in Stockton, on November 3.