A Nova Scotia man has pleaded guilty to using a video camera to secretly tape a girl in a bathtub.

During a court appearance in Amherst on Tuesday, Winston Charles Patriquin, 33, from Port Howe, also pleaded guilty to a charge of making child pornography.

Police began investigating in February after someone saw what Patriquin was recording on his video camera.

"Essentially they involved putting up a ladder against the side of a house and using a video camera to film a child in the bathtub," said Crown attorney Craig Botterill.

Patriquin was charged under the new voyeurism section of the Criminal Code, making him the first case in Canada, according to the Crown.

New law makes recording illegal

The law, which was passed in November, makes it illegal to "surreptitiously observe or make a visual recording" for a sexual purpose.

Patriquin also faced charges of accessing and possessing child pornography, but the Crown plans to withdraw them after working out a deal with the defence.

Botterill said that deal will keep a child off the witness stand.

"It's important wherever possible to try to spare a child of having to go through the trauma of testifying in court," he said.

In return for guilty pleas to voyeurism and making child pornography, Patriquin will agree to a 90-day jail sentence.

The deal also calls for two years probation with intensive treatment and counselling. Patriquin will have to supply a DNA sample and his name will be placed on the national sexual offender registry.

Botterill said he considered pushing for a one-year jail sentence. But given there is no precedent for the crime of voyeurism and Patriquin had no criminal record, he decided there was a chance Patriquin would do no jail time at all.

Botterill said the public should know that no child was sexually assaulted, "and in fact the child was unaware that she was being filmed."

Patriquin will be sentenced on Sept. 28.