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A former police officer with the New York Port Authority is claiming the horrors of the Sept. 11 terror attacks on America turned him into a Peeping Tom after he was caught videotaping an 11-year-old girl taking a shower.

Russell Bass, 42, pleaded guilty this week to a misdemeanor count of surveillance in exchange for his resignation, three years probation, and psychological and sex-offender treatment.

Hijacked airliner strikes one of the World Trade Center towers Sept. 11, 2001.

"He had lost a lot of friends and people he knew through work," defense lawyer Steven Gaitman said, according to the New York Daily News. "He became pretty disturbed, and he did things he would never ordinarily do."

Gaitman told Newsday that Bass, a 15-year veteran of the force, is "extremely remorseful and apologetic" and that "none of this behavior happened before 9-11."

But a forensic pathologist who deals with sex offenders disagrees with Gaitman about Bass' previous proclivities.

"I guarantee that before 9-11 that this man had been a Peeping Tom," Don Lewittes told the Daily News. "But somehow it was either under control ... or he got away with it. Then 9-11 happens, and it breaks through all his defenses."

Lewittes says while it's unusual to use the 2001 assault on America as an excuse for criminal activity, there have been cases documented where people blame the terror for alcoholism, panic attacks, and even break-ups of their marriages.

Bass, a father of four, was arrested Oct. 10 after the girl showering noticed a hand holding a video camera near her bathroom window in Hollis, N.Y.

The child told her relatives who then confronted Bass in the backyard. The officer tried to flee, but was chased down and caught by the relatives who held him for police.

Prosecutors wouldn't say if terror-related stress was a factor in their handling of the case, which is the first involving a new Peeping Tom law in Queens.

Formal sentencing is slated for Feb. 17.