Man Pleads Guilty to Acting as 'Peeping Tom' in Moon

A Mercer County man arrested last year for lurking outside of apartments in Moon Township to watch women in states of undress will be registered as a sex offender.

Brian Williams, 37, of Greenville, pleaded guilty Thursday to one count of invasion of privacy and six counts of loitering and prowling at nighttime, said Michael Manko, spokesman for Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala.

Police said in a complaint Williams acted as a peeping tom, targeting young women’s ground-level apartments in the township, and watching them in various states of undress “for the purpose of sexual gratification.”

Other charges facing Williams, including stalking and defiant trespass, were withdrawn. Eight women were named as victims in the original criminal complaint against Williams.

Police charged Williams with prowling outside of apartment windows to view women living at the Waterford Landing and Polo Club complexes during a six-month period spanning 2011 and 2012.

Williams was taken into police custody on the evening of March 26, 2012, when Moon Sgt. Jeffrey Smith, who was on foot patrol, found him loitering near an apartment window on Landing Lane, according to police. 

Williams admitted to police at the time of his arrest that he had been acting as a peeping tom “for years,” making the 70-mile trek from Greenville to Moon to watch women and masturbate. He was found with personal lubricant in his pocket.

The arrest came after years-worth of complaints from residents of the apartment complexes, who would report finding strange footprints in the snow or discarded cigarettes outside of their windows, apparently leftover from someone loitering outside. 

Williams, who police said has no apparent connection to Moon Township, was sentenced to three years probation, and will be registered as a sex offender for 15 years, Manko said.