He says videos through hole in bathroom wall were for security. Police disagree

A 44-year-old Sansom Park man was charged Friday with taking improper video of two relatives, including a child, through a hole in the wall of a family bathroom.

David Preston Norton told investigators on July 17 that the recordings were a security tool that inadvertently caught the child, Police Chief W. Wilkerson said.

Norton was also charged Friday with sexual performance by a child under 14, a first-degree felony, in regard to the child recording.

He remained in the Tarrant County Jail on Monday in lieu of $45,000 bail.

Wilkerson said the incident was reported to police in October 2015 after Norton’s now former wife discovered improper images on Norton’s phone.

“There was a hole in the bathroom wall, and he was actually taking videos through the wall, through this opening,” Wilkerson said.

Wilkerson said Norton was recording the videos using his cellphone.

Police confiscated the phone, a laptop and compact discs.

Wilkerson said that in a review of cases following turn-over in the department, investigators realized that the confiscated equipment had not been forensically analyzed and requested another agency’s help to do so.

Results of that analysis confirmed a criminal offense had taken place, Wilkerson said.

“It was not near as much information as we expected it was going to be. This was a very short-term deal. It wasn’t an extensively long period of time (that he’d been recording),“ Wilkerson said.

Norton was arrested on warrants issued in the case on Wednesday, Wilkerson said.

Deanna Boyd: 817-390-7655, @deannaboyd