Man banned from ladies and gender-neutral toilets after secretly filming women

A man who secretly filmed women undressing, showering and going to the toilet at a university has been spared jail.

Luke Mallaband, 23, from Walsall, placed recording equipment at locations around the University of East Anglia (UEA) in Norwich, including at student accommodation and within the library toilets.

He was caught when a woman discovered she was being filmed and reported it to police.

Jobless Mallaband admitted six voyeurism offences and has been banned from all female and gender neutral public toilets for three years, given a curfew and a community order.

Louise Mantell-Sayer, prosecuting, said a woman discovered recording equipment in a gender neutral toilet in the UEA library.

In a victim personal statement the woman said she felt "disgusted" and"violated" by what happened.

"She asked herself if a person was sick enough to film random people in thetoilet, what else would he be sick enough to do," said Ms Mantell-Sayer.

The woman said she was concerned about "what the offender would do in the future if this offence was not dealt with at the time".

A total of 38 voyeurism videos were discovered on Mallaband's phone, filmed between July 2013 and February 2016.

Dave Foulkes, mitigating, said Mallaband, now of Yew Treee Road, Walsall, had no previous convictions and had referred himself to a mental health team in the Midlands.

A probation report described Mallaband as a "high risk of posing serious harm to females".

Jean Bonnick, chairman of the bench, banned Mallaband from all gender neutral and female public toilets for three years and imposed a six-month curfew from 7pm to 7am daily.

"If females are at risk, it may be more likely to be in the hours of darknessso we are using that," said Ms Bonnick.

Mallaband was also handed a three-year community order, must complete a200-hour sex offending behaviour programme and pay £170 costs.