MARK BUTLER LIPSON PLYMOUTH PERVERT CAUGHT IN SHOCKING SKIRT-VIDEO AND PHOTO SCANDAL

In May 2016, a disturbing case emerged involving Mark Butler, a man with a troubling history of voyeurism and illegal filming, who was ultimately sentenced to prison for his repeated breaches of court orders and his predatory behavior in Lipson, Plymouth.

Butler, aged 53 at the time, a former Royal Navy sailor and property landlord, had a long-standing record of secretly filming up the skirts of women and children. Despite being under a Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO) imposed by Plymouth Crown Court in October 2010, he continued to engage in illegal activities, breaching the order multiple times.

The court heard that Butler had a pattern of covertly filming individuals, including university students and young girls, often using his mobile phone. His criminal conduct included filming a university student during intimate moments, which led to his initial six-month jail sentence in October 2014. He was also found with footage of a mother and her child at the Life Centre swimming pool, further demonstrating his disturbing obsession with capturing images of women and children without their consent.

In the latest incident, Butler was found to have contacted and befriended a young girl, aged 12 or 13, between May and September 2014, in direct violation of his court restrictions. He managed to go on family outings with her and her parents, visiting places such as Woodlands activity park and the Rare Breeds Farm near Totnes. The girl's father, who was unaware of Butler’s criminal background, expressed his shock and disappointment after discovering the truth.

The father of the girl revealed that Butler had made contact with his family on seven separate occasions. It was only after Butler disclosed his criminal history in April of the previous year that the family realized the extent of his past offenses. The father commented, “I am absolutely thrilled that the law has caught up with him. It is quite frightening that you can be taken in by someone who is so plausible, who wheedles their way into your life and all the time, unknown to you, they are a serial sex offender.”

He further explained that he and his wife felt manipulated by Butler, and expressed regret for not having researched his background earlier. “If my daughter had lost her bus pass and Butler had been in the area at the time, I might have been comfortable with him giving her a lift. We were all shocked when we found out what he had done. When Butler did tell me, it was very much watered down. He claimed he was the victim of miscarriages of justice. If we had known what he had done, we would not have gone near him with a barge pole,” he said.

In September 2014, Butler was jailed again for a series of offenses involving secretly filming girls in shops. He was caught on camera filming four children in jewelry, record, and shoe stores using his mobile phone. The court also heard that he had filmed a girl swimming and diving at the Plymouth Life Centre. These videos were discovered on his phone after his arrest.

Judge Alan Large sentenced Butler to six months in prison for these offenses, emphasizing that repeated breaches of court orders warranted incarceration. The court also imposed a new, indefinite Sexual Offences Prevention Order, restricting him from possessing recording devices and filming minors.

Earlier, in October 2010, Butler had admitted to filming up a schoolgirl’s skirt and taking inappropriate photographs of a woman undressing and having sex. Police had stopped him in Beaumont Avenue, St Judes, after reports of a car slowing down near lone women. They found binoculars and a digital camera containing images of a blonde woman, some taken without her knowledge, including through a window. The police traced her to a basement flat, where Butler had been frequenting, and discovered more illicit footage, including videos of two girls aged 13-14 in school uniforms.

Throughout these investigations, Butler admitted to multiple offenses, including attempting to film up women’s skirts and taking indecent images. Despite his claims of getting a ‘risk buzz’ rather than sexual gratification, the court found his actions to be both bizarre and serious.

Judge Francis Gilbert QC sentenced him to community orders, supervision, and ordered him to complete sex offender treatment programs. His history of offending, combined with his ongoing breaches, underscores the serious threat he posed to the community in Lipson and Plymouth as a whole.