RAF sergeant filmed up skirts at Royal Ascot
AN RAF sergeant has admitted secretly filming up the skirts of women racegoers at Royal Ascot.
Andrew Hack, 44, was caught by security lying on the grass to film up skirts and down tops at the race meeting last month.
Hack had used the zoom on his high- quality lens to record more than a dozen women at the Berkshire racecourse, magistrates heard.
His camcorder captured them as they stood up or sat down at the race meeting.
But the married father- to- be claimed that he filmed the women because he was stressed.
He was thrown out of the course by security who spotted him acting suspiciously on June 19. The secu- rity staff then asked police to approach the Flight Sergeant and he was arrested in the car park of the course, East Berkshire magistrates’ court heard.
Officers studied the footage and found 82 video files on the device’s memory card, showing 13 women who had been filmed.
Pamela Hayre-Wakefield, prosecuting, told the Slough court: ‘For the majority of the videos the defendant had clearly sat down on the grass near a group of women drinking and filmed backwards with the camera positioned between his arm and his body.
‘The camera was of very good quality and could perform extreme close- ups. The majority of the women in the footage were wearing underwear. However one officer observed images of breasts on the camera.
‘Mr Hack had been using his camera to zoom in and film up skirts and down tops.’
Hack, of Didcot, Oxfordshire, admitted a charge of outraging public decency.
He said he had been stressed at work and sought a challenge and a thrill. Hack, who is a naturist, claimed he was unaware he was committing an offence and had carried out similar practices 20 to 30 times over the past 20 years.
Jelia Sane, defending, said: ‘There is no suggestion that Mr Hack followed or pursued the women in any way.
;No threats were made and there was no racial or religious aggravation in his actions.
‘He did not subject the women to high levels of harm and he understands the repercussions his actions will have on his work life and family life – his partner is currently seven months pregnant.
‘This was an instance of someone seeking a thrill and a challenge under a great deal of strain.’
Hack is awaiting sentence.
‘Seeking a thrill and a challenge’