A BBC Gardeners’ World presenter will appear in court charged with a string of voyeurism offences over claims he spied on tenants living in a flat above his Stratford home.
Steve Brookes is accused of watching lodgers “doing a private act knowing that the person did not consent to being observed for your sexual gratification”.
The celebrity gardener is charged with seven counts of spying on tenants living above his £500,000 property between November 2015 and September this year.
The 55 year-old, of Loxley Road, was charged on Monday and is due to appear at Leamington Magistrates Court in January.
The dad and grandfather, who has worked for the BBC since 1993 as a gardening presenter broadcast live from the Chelsea Flower Show this year.
Mr Brookes became known as “Mr Rotavator” in the 1990s for his work on educational Channel 4 shows and visiting schools to encourage horticulture.
He won the Royal Television Society Award in 2000 for his series Growing Plants and was chairman of Stratford’s In Bloom project until earlier this year.
Mr Brookes – who lives with his partner and has three grown-up children and five grandchildren – regularly presents The Greatest Gardening Tips in the World stage show and travels the world as a celebrity lecturer on cruise ships.
On his website, the celebrity is described as “fun, charismatic and popular” with “an enthusiastic approach and subtle humour”.
He also boasts of keeping 40 finches, an aquariam and 150,000 honey bees at his home.
