LONDON, UK: A man in Britain has been accused of planting spyware on several personal computers which enabled him to secretly photograph individuals in their private moments.

Computer technician Trevor Harwell was arrested Wednesday at his home in Fullerton city, California, where detectives allegedly found hundreds of thousands of the pictures on his computer, the Daily Mail reported Thursday.

Harwell is accused of installing the programme which gave him remote access to the users' computer and webcam, while working for a local computer repair company, said Fullerton police spokesman Sergeant Andrew Goodrich.

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Goodrich said: "Once he had access, he would take photographs of the users, usually women. Often, the female victims were undressed or changing clothes."

Harwell then allegedly stored the photos on a remote server and eventually downloaded them to his own computer.

Police say they began investigating him after a neighbour contacted authorities over a suspicious message on his daughter's computer.

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The message showed a system error reading: a problem with an 'internal sensor'. It advised: "If unsure what to do, try putting your laptop near hot steam for several minutes to clean the sensor."

Many users who received similar messages took their laptops into the bathroom while they showered, enabling Harwell, allegedly, to photograph them undressing or naked, said Goodrich.