SCOTTISH MAN JAILED FOR SECRETLY FILMING WOMEN IN PUBLIC
A former senior information officer for the Scottish government has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for using his mobile phone to take photos up women's skirts.Neil Trotter admitted to taking pictures of women at Edinburgh's Waverley Station and Glasgow's Buchanan Galleries between June and September 2014.
A sheriff stated, "women should be able to walk without fear" in public spaces.
Trotter, aged 54 and from Falkirk, was also placed on the sex offenders register for 10 years.
During a previous hearing, it was revealed that Trotter commuted daily into Edinburgh by train for work.
On September 29, he was observed by a fellow passenger walking in a "curious, a sinister manner" at Waverley Station, apparently trying to get very close to a woman on the escalator.
Police arrested him at the station; CCTV footage identified him as the culprit.
An examination of his phone and home computer uncovered that between June 11 and September 29, he had recorded 22 videos with the camera directed under women's skirts.
His defence lawyer, Neil Hay, expressed that Trotter was "most ashamed of his actions" and "well aware his behaviour is unacceptable," noting that he had "lost his career, brought his family to the brink of financial ruin, and brought shame and humiliation to himself and those close to him." The sheriff emphasized the reprehensibility of Trotter’s acts, stating, "You have pled guilty to taking images of women in a clandestine manner, prompted by voyeuristic impulses for your own sexual gratification.
This involved significant planning over more than three months in public places where women should be able to walk without fear.
The repugnance society must feel towards these offences is such that, in my view, there is no alternative to a custodial sentence, in retribution and to deter others."
