Bus driver filmed women in secret
Some victims were schoolgirls
A man who secretly photographed young women and filmed girls in school uniform has been spared jail.
Grzegorz Golebiowski targeted women and girls at Stirling University, the city’s bus station, Thistle Marches shopping centre and elsewhere.
Using his mobile phone, he built up a collection of thousands of stills and videos, which he then “edited” at home to enlarge and zoom in on parts of the bodies of those featured.
The 59-year-old Polish national, of Polmaise Avenue, St Ninians, snapped his victims during his break periods while working as a bus driver.
He later told social workers that he had been mainly interested in females aged 18 to 30 “because that’s when women are at their most beautiful”.
Stirling Sheriff Court heard he had carried on snapping and filming for 17 months – between June 13, 2015, and November 28, 2016 – while he was living in Stirling.
His wife of 40 years had remained in his home country.
He was unmasked after sneaking into the shopping centre near the bus station, while on a mid-afternoon break, and secretly filming a group of schoolgirls.
He was wearing a hi-vis jacket and carrying a First Bus bag when a shopper caught him in the act of filming young women.
Prosecutor Kyrsten Buist 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.” 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.
Officers seized Golebiowksi’s phone and found more than 3500 photographs of young women and girls – including four girls in school uniform – and more than 100 videos, which had all been filmed in public places without the subjects’ knowledge.
She submitted that the offence was “an act of deviance”. Golebiowksi pleaded guilty in January 2018 to committing a breach of the peace by filming and photographing females, whose identities remain unknown, without their knowledge or consent.
After a series of delays he was finally sentenced on Friday.
Defence advocate Grant Markie said: “The explanation proffered to social workers was that this came out of his interest in photography, and in periods between his shifts as a bus driver – when he was walking through public places – he had taken photographs and videos of younger women whom he found attractive.
“These were subsequently ‘edited’ and I take that to mean the enlargement of sections that related to the breasts and buttocks of the women shown.
“The videos of young girls wearing school uniform will be of some concern.”
The court heard that Golebiowski, who has “limited English”, had been dismissed by First Bus, and now worked transporting hospital waste.
Sheriff William Gilchrist sentenced him to carry out 120 hours of unpaid work, and placed him under social work supervision for two years.
He did not place him on the Sex Offenders’ Register, saying that could also only have been for two years, which would be covered anyway by the supervision order.
He told Golebiowksi, through an interpreter: “There’s no doubt that there was a sexual element, but what you did was commit a breach of the peace.”