A barrister believed to be among the first to be prosecuted under new upskirting laws has been handed a 24-month community order.
Daren Timson-Hunt, 54, from Stanford Le Hope, Essex, admitted one count of operating equipment beneath clothing of another without consent on 19 August.
Westminster Magistrates’ Court heard that Timson-Hunt used a mobile phone to take covert images under the dress of woman as she travelled to a job interview on the
London underground on July 1.
The charge stated he used a mobile phone “for the purpose of obtaining sexual gratification” at central London’s Embankment station on July 1.
The Crown Prosecution Service said Timson-Hunt is the fourth man convicted in separate cases since a new law was brought into force under the Voyeurism (Offences) Act in April.
The first was Salim Ahmed, 33, from
Tottenham, north London, a Bulgarian shop worker who was given a community order after he was seen filming women at the entrance to Wireless Festival in Finsbury Park.
Police found 16 recordings taken under women’s skirts on his
iPhone, and on July 8 at Highbury Corner Magistrates’ Court he admitted one count of recording an image under clothing to observe another without consent.
Michael Adjetey, 28, of Newham, east London, was caught on CCTV taking pictures of women’s buttocks at a branch of TK Maxx in Hackney, north London on July 16 and 17.
He later admitted that he had taken hundreds of upskirt photos, and pleaded guilty to two counts of operating equipment beneath the clothing of another without their consent at Thames Magistrates’ Court on July 31.
Adjetey was put on the sex offenders’ register for five years, and was sentenced to a two-year community order.
The third case was Thomas Hetherington, 21, from Wakefield, West Yorkshire, who was confronted and reported by his victim after he took a photo of her at a bus depot in the town on July 23.
He admitted one count of recording an image under clothing without consent at Leeds District Magistrates’ Court on August 13, and was also given a two-year community order and put on the sex offenders’ register for five years.Related... As First Upskirting Case Goes To Court, 'Expect To See More Prosecutions', Says
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