Ex-Marine is spared jail after filming up women’s skirts in supermarket

AFORMER marine who filmed up women’s skirts in a supermarket has been spared jail.

Donald Cooper was at Tesco in Thornbury when a female detective realised he was following her around the aisles.

She saw his camera phone facing up in his basket, detained him and had him arrested.

Cooper, 67, of Itchington Road in Thornbury, pleaded guilty to four charges of outraging public decency in July 2017.

He asked for 56 further offences to be considered.

The Recorder of Bristol His Honour Judge Peter Blair QC handed him a six months jail term, suspended for 18 months, with rehabilitation and a £115 victim surcharge.

He told Cooper: “Don’t you ever find yourself in court again because you will go straight to prison next time.”

Hannah Squire, prosecuting, told Bristol Crown Court the charges related to “upskirting” – filming women under their skirts in public without their knowledge.

She told the court Cooper was caught by a victim who realised he was invading her personal space, confronted him and made him hand over his phone.

Cooper told police: “I admit to doing it.

“Its my fault, I’m a lonely man,

my wife has been away so long.”

Police analysed two mobile phones belonging to him and found further clips, the court heard.

Anna Midgley, defending, said her client was a former marine who worked in retail as well as acting as a youth worker.

She said his wife had been away, caring for her mother, and her client drank more and became isolated. A report said he had “done a lot more right than wrong in his life”. The court heard he now planned to move to Derby.

The police officer who reported him told the Bristol Post: “I detained him and called the police because I had my daughter with me. “It was a difficult situation for me to manage.

“My concern was for my children.”

In January, the House of Lords approved a ban on upskirting – the taking of a non-consensual photo of another person’s genitals.

For the past 18 months campaigner Gina Martin had fought tirelessly to make the practice illegal and give police the tools to prosecute after she herself became a victim.

Under the new legislation, which received Royal assent in the House of Lords this month, police will be able to arrest people on suspicion of upskirting from April, and perpetrators could be jailed for up to two years.