Upskirting? Ah yes, that’s my hobby...
What Palace voyeur told police – and now he’s been spared jail
A VOYEUR who told police that filming up women’s skirts was his hobby was spared jail yesterday.
Richard Sivier was spotted using a camera to take illicit photos and videos of a string of women near Buckingham Palace.
One of the 57-year-old pervert’s victims was pushing a pram near the tourist spot. When he was approached by officers, married Sivier confessed he had been carrying out his ‘hobby of sorts’ for 18 months in London and his home city of Cambridge.
A law allowing those convicted of ‘upskirting’ to be jailed for up to two years was introduced on June 21 – the
‘Had to explain it to his wife’
day after Sivier’s offence. But yesterday he was given eight-week jail sentence suspended for two years when he appeared for sentencing at Westminster magistrates’ court.
The court heard how Sivier had posted some of the images online and that his marriage is now in crisis because his wife is ‘finding it hard to understand his behaviour’.
Sivier, who admitted outraging public decency at an earlier hearing, targeted a series of women in central London by putting a camera in a bag and leaving the lens poking out. Prosecutor Trevor Green said police in the Buckingham Palace area received a call about a man filming up skirts and followed Sivier.
At around noon officers saw him with a camera bag dangling near his ankles as he went ‘up close behind’ a woman aged 25 before he made his way towards St James’s Park, where he was seen filming up the dress of a woman in her early 20s.
Sivier was later spotted near Horse Guards Parade trying to target a woman pushing a pram, the court heard. After being arrested, Sivier told officers he had also recorded upskirt footage at Trooping the Colour. A previous hearing heard he told police his upskirting had been a ‘hobby’ for more than a year.
Paul Dillon, defending yester- day, told the court how Sivier’s actions had rocked his marriage. He said: ‘He had to explain his absence overnight to his wife he says she is finding it hard to understand his behaviour. It is deeply embarrassing to Mr Sivier.’ Magistrates ordered Sivier to pay £200 costs and banned him from carrying a camera in a public place for the next two years. The bench stopped short of banning him from having a phone in a public place because of his work ‘and the fact that mobile phones are an essential part of daily life’.
Sivier, whose occupation was not given in court, will also be required to take part in counselling and a rehabilitation course.
A police inspector hailed as a ‘wonderful ambassador’ for his force has admitted making more than 300 indecent images of children. Lee Bartram, 44, pleaded guilty to seven child pornography offences and was remanded in custody until sentencing at Wolverhampton Crown Court next month.
Bartram, who spearheaded a West Midlands Police drugs campaign, has been suspended.