Customer filmed in store’s toilet by sex offender
A SEX offender filmed a customer in a department store toilet using his mobile, a court has heard.
Steven Every went on to sexually assault two men in a separate incident.
Swansea Crown Court heard the 28-year-old has a previous conviction for sexually assaulting another man while pretending to be a police officer and carrying out a body search.
A judge said it was clear from reports he had read into the defendant that he had “uncontrollable sexual urges”, and was prepared to “go to great lengths to manipulate situations” so as to act upon them.
John Hipkin QC, prosecuting, said the first incident happened in September last year in the Debenhams store in Carmarthen town centre.
He said a member of the public in the male toilets saw someone reaching under a cubicle wall with a mobile phone.
The court heard police investigations led to the defendant, and when officers checked his mobile they found the footage in question stored in his Snapchat app.
The two offences of sexual assault – and of assault by beating on one of the victims – occurred while Every was on bail for the toilet offence.
Mr Hipkin said Every touched the groin of one man and made sexual comments towards him, and grappled with another man and “inserted his fingers into the flies” before squeezing his neck.
Every, of Meidrim, Carmarthenshire, had previously pleaded guilty to voyeurism, two counts of sexual assault, and one count of assault by beating when he appeared in the dock for sentencing.
The court heard he has previous convictions for battery, three for sexual assault, and impersonating a police officer.
This last offence had seem him pretending to be a policeman and carrying out a body search on a man during which he touched his victim’s penis.
Nicola Powell, for Every, said the defendant had learning difficulties and “lacked maturity”.
She said people who had been helping him described him as a “complex individual” but one who was making progress.
Judge Keith Thomas said it was clear from the reports he had read into the defendant and his circumstances that he had “uncontrollable sexual urges” and “goes to great lengths to manipulate situations” so as to allow him to act upon them.
Every was sentenced to a three-year community order with a requirement that he live at a specified address, and was made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order for the next five years.
He will be a registered sex offender for the same length of time.
The judge said the community order was a “direct alternative” to imprisonment, and he warned the defendant that if he broke the order he would be sent to prison.