A POSTMAN who filmed a half-naked woman as she exercised in her own home must register as a sex offender for seven years.

As reported in the Daily Echo, Nicholas Apps was delivering letters in Southbourne when he walked into a house through the back garden and discovered the unsuspecting woman using a rowing machine in her underwear.

Apps, 49, took out his mobile phone and began recording the victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons.

He filmed her for around a minute before he was interrupted by her husband.

Officers investigating the incident discovered Apps had previously looked at the woman's Facebook page and searched for her on Google.

But Apps told police he had posted the wrong letter through the door of her home and went to the back of the property to retrieve it when there was no answer.

Apps, of Sea Road in Boscombe, admitted a charge of voyeurism at Poole Magistrates' Court. The sentencing hearing was adjourned for reports.

On Wednesday, the defendant returned to the court and was sentenced to eight weeks in prison suspended for two years. He was also ordered to pay the victim £200 in compensation and register as a sex offender.