Crime & Safety
Mom of Video Voyeurism Victim Speaks Out after Conviction
"I just want to warn others," she said. "There are predators out there, they may be your boyfriend or husband."
Four years after her 16-year-old daughter discovered a pen camera tucked in a shirt pocket to record her in her own bathroom as she showered, Heidi List Murphy has finally seen the case against her ex-boyfriend adjudicated.
William C. O’Connell, 56, of 310 Old Mill Lane, Portsmouth, must now register as a sex offender for life after being convicted of one count of video voyeurism. He entered a guilty plea last week in Superior Court and will serve two years of probation.
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But Murphy, who said her daughter is now in her 20s and earning a 3.8 GPA in college, is not feeling relief or satisfaction that O’Connell will bear the stain of a predator for the rest of his life.
“The story is how it impacted me,” she said in an interview. “This was just one crime. Just because he didn’t punch me or hit me — there is so much more psychological, financial, verbal, emotional abuses.
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“I just want to say — hey, Newport County, watch out. There are predators out there, they may be your boyfriend or husband.”
Murphy said her story will ring true for countless women in the community and she now knows what it feels like to be helpless, alone and unheard.
The son of a prominent Newport family, O’Connell was not the typical sexual predator, Murphy said. She said she faced an uphill battle convincing authorities that she and her daughter were victims.
Murphy has since moved out of state. She said living on a ”tiny island” while the case was ongoing was suffocating.
Though the crime was committed in 2011, Murphy pressed charges in 2013 after the relationship ended and O’Connell allegedly started sending her photos that he had taken without her knowledge or consent.
The daughter reported the crime shortly after it happened in 2011 to Middletown Police but decided not to go forward with charges to not harm the relationship between her mother and O’Connell, according to a police report.
This is the first of several stories Patch in Rhode Island is reporting on behalf of sex abuse victims. Stay tuned.
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