Bus driver sneaked photos
He took pictures for ‘sexual gratification’
A bus driver was facing jail yesterday (Tuesday) after admitting secretly photographing schoolgirls and young women, and amassing a catalogue of thousands of clandestine photos and films.
Grzegorz Golebiowksi sneaked pictures of his victims as he travelled around Stirling, targeting women and girls on the Stirling University campus, at Stirling bus station, at the city’s Thistle Marches shopping centre, and in the streets, zooming in on his unsuspecting victims’ breasts and buttocks.
He claimed he just liked to film “people looking nice”, but prosecutors claim his motive was “clearly sexual gratification”.
Golebiowksi (59) built up his collection over more than 17 months, while driving buses for First Bus, based at their Bannockburn depot.
He admitted committing the offences between June 13 2015, and November 28 2016, the date police finally seized his phone.
He was unmasked after sneaking into the Thistle Marches centre, near the bus station, while on a midafternoon break, and secretly filming a group of schoolgirls.
Kyrsten Buist, prosecuting, said that about 2.25pm, a male shopper noticed a man, who turned out to be Golebiowksi, wearing a hivis jacket and carrying a First Bus bag, acting suspiciously.
She said: “He was holding his mobile phone close to his chest, apparently secretly filming a group of girls, aged approximately 16 to 19, without their knowledge or consent.”
Miss Buist said the incident was seen by a 33-year-old man who was in the centre. When the girls had gone, the witness “peered over the accused’s shoulder” and observed him watching the video of the young girls he had just taken.
The depute fiscal said the witness followed Golebiowksi as he took an escalator back down to the bus station, and saw him again replaying the video of the schoolgirls. He contacted a member of First Bus staff, and then the police.
Golebiowksi, a Pole said to have “limited command of the English language,” was traced and detained and interviewed through an interpreter.
Miss Buist said he told police he sometimes filmed “people looking nice”, and said he knew that what he was doing was wrong.
Stirling Sheriff Court was told that police analysed his phone and found more than 3500 “unique images” of young women and girls, including four girls in school uniform, and more than 100 videos, all filmed in public places without the subjects’ knowledge.
Miss Buist said: “The footage concentrated on their buttocks and chest areas, often zooming in on those areas. Given the areas the photographs were concentrating on, I don’t think there can be anything other than a significant sexual element to this.
“He seems to be concentrating on particular areas, which would give the court an indication that it was for the purpose of sexual gratification.”
Golebiowksi, of Polmaise Avenue, St Ninians, Stirling, pleaded guilty to committing a breach of the peace by filming and photographing females, whose identities remain unknown, without their knowledge or consent.
Bobby McCormack, defending, said Golebiowksi no longer worked for First Bus. He said: “There is a high degree of replication in the photographs. The vast majority are just women going about their business.”
Sheriff William Gilchrist deferred sentence until February 7 for social background reports, and “for consideration of whether there is a significant sexual element”.
Golebiowksi’s bail was continued.