Pool ban but no jail for changing room voyeur

Neil Smith, formerly of Fitzwilliam Road, Eastwood, pleaded guilty to a charge of voyeurism after he was confronted by woman who spotted his hand operating a video camera from beneath the cubicle she was changing in.

The startled mum had been getting changed with her five-year-old son at Sheffield’s Hillborough Leisure Centre when the incident occurred in August last year.

Police later found numerous covertly recorded images of women in leisure centres and on beaches at Smith’s home.

At Sheffield Crown Court yesterday Judge Simon Lawler handed the 57-year-old engineer a three-month community order and his attendance at a sexual offences programme.

Judge Lawler said that it would be “easy” to send him to jail for his crimes, but added: “Bearing in mind the guidelines I have to observe it would only be for a short time.”

Judge Lawler said that the public would be better served by a sentence offering Smith help to combat his “issues.”

He also banned the engineer, now of Old Town, Barnsley, from entering any leisure centre or sports centre changing rooms in future.