A nightclub voyeur was today spared jail after he admitted hiding in a cubicle in the women’s toilet and filming women “in a state of undress” in the neighbouring loo.
Levon Anderson was admitted a charge under the same strict legislation that outlaws upskirting in Scotland.
Dundee Sheriff Court heard that a woman – who cannot be named for legal reasons – had gone to the toilet at Dundee’s Club Tropicana when she spotted a mobile phone being held close to the floor, poking through from the neighbouring cubicle.
Fiscal depute Kate Irwin told the court: “She recognised the mobile phone being held under the partition separating the cubicles.
“She attempted to seize possession of the mobile phone but it was retracted back into the other cubicle.
“The witness waited in the bathroom for around five minutes until the accused exited the cubicle to the left of her.
“He was confronted by the witness and another female.
“They seized possession of his mobile phone and he was then escorted from the club by doormen.
“The woman later looked at the mobile phone and noted two videos had been recorded of females using the bathroom, one of which was herself.
“This was handed over to the police who interviewed the accused and he made full admissions.”
Anderson, 21, of Harefield Road, Dundee, pleaded guilty on summary complaint to a charge under the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act committed on November 25, 2016 at Club Tropicana, South Ward Road, Dundee.
He admitted recording a named woman and other female persons with the intention of enabling himself or another to look at the image by recording them in the lavatory in a state of undress.
Solicitor advocate Jim Laverty, defending, said: “He is a young man with certain difficulties.”
Sheriff Tom Hughes said it was a “most unusual case”.
He said: “It is made even more unusual by the particular information I’ve received from the forensic psychologist who carried out a very detailed background check on you.
“I’m going to take a very unusual view of this case.”
Anderson was placed on a community payback order with six months supervision and placed on the sex offenders register for the same period of time.
Anderson pled guilty to breaching section 9 of the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009 – the same voyeurism section of the law that bans the practice that caused massive controversy at Westminster earlier this year when MP Christopher Chope blocked a bill that would have brought English law into line with Scotland.
