A man condemned as “despicable” by a judge after he admitted taking intimate photographs of a friend while she slept, has been warned he will go to prison if he puts a foot out of line.

Richard Michael Harvey, 29, narrowly avoided an immediate prison sentence when he appeared before Truro Crown Court last Friday.

Instead Harvey, previously living in Helston but now from Bedfordshire, was sentenced to a three year supervision order and put on a sexual offenders treatment programme by Judge Simon Carr.

He was told if he breached any part of the sentence given to him after pleading guilty to a voyeurism charge in Helston, he would be jailed for nine months.

Former Helston Community College student Harvey, who has been placed on the sexual offenders register, was arrested last year after taking nude pictures of a friend in her own bed, as she slept.

Addressing Harvey in court, Judge Carr said: “Your behaviour on that evening was despicable and you abused the trust of a friend in the most appalling way.

“You were the sole person responsible for what happened on that night. You chose to uncover her and take multiple pictures of her.

“It then got even worse because you then downloaded them on your computer for your own sexual gratification.

“The fact you are a young man of previous good behaviour and someone who pleaded guilty at the first opportunity are the only things which have just saved you from receiving an immediate custodial sentence.”

On August 29 last year Harvey, who was down in Cornwall to visit his parents, had met up with his friend for a night out before returning to her house.

She went to bed and told the defendant he could sleep on the sofa.

But at some point during the night, Harvey entered the bedroom asking for a cuddle, which the victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, agreed to – provided he remained fully clothed.

After going to sleep, she awoke during the night to hear Harvey, who was naked from the waist down, tell her: “You are a sexy bitch. There is no place on earth I would rather be right now.”

She saw the light on his mobile phone and realised the bed covers were off the bed and she was only wearing a T-shirt. He had his mobile phone between her legs, taking photographs.

When the victim challenged Harvey about his actions, he said: “Sorry, I’m such a twat”, before being thrown out of the house.

She told the police what had happened and he was arrested at his parents’ address.

Harvey told the police he took the photographs not for sexual gratification, but as a memento.

His lawyers have previously said that, crucially, there was no evidence that the images were uploaded, transferred or circulated and shown to anyone else, and an extensive examination by the police of his recording equipment found no suggestion that the images were shown to other people.