A PERVERT has been jailed after he used a camera fitted to his shoe to film under the skirts of women in Basingstoke's Festival Place shopping centre.

Dominic Pomroy was locked up after admitting outraging public decency by carrying out the covert filming at the shopping centre during five-week period this summer.

Winchester Crown Court heard the 49-year-old was caught out when two shoppers spotted him filming on Saturday, August 30.

Jane Terry, prosecuting, said: “The defendant was seen by two members of the public who thought his behaviour was unusual and suspicious.

“They saw him raising his shoe under the skirts of young females. One kept an eye on him while the other alerted security.”

Pomroy ran when two police community support officers came to the scene, but he was tackled by a member of the public.

Basingstoke Gazette:

Miss Terry added: “A covert recording device was found in his right sock. It was positioned upwards to record through his right shoe. Clearly, quite a careful preparation was required.”

The court heard police found around 260 clips altogether, showing mainly “buttocks and underwear”.

Pomroy, of Anstey Road, Alton, was in the dock for sentence having admitted outraging the public decency between July 24 and August 30 this year.

He also admitted breaching a sexual offences prevention order made in 2011, when he was jailed for two years for a similar offence and drug offences. On that occasion, Pomroy fitted a camera in his bathroom, as well as using another fitted to his shoe.

Barry McElduff, defending, said: “He knows he has let a lot of people down - people who stood by him and supported him when he was released from prison. For that, he hangs his head in shame.

“He just does not have control of his actions, he candidly admits, and does not take on board the full impact of his offending.”

Judge Andrew Barnett told Pomroy he was “verging on being a significant danger to the public”, and was an “unpleasant nuisance particularly to young ladies who you seem to be drawn to in a rather perverted way”.

He sentenced Pomroy to 18 months in jail, and made him subject to a new sexual offences prevention order for 15 years, banning him from using covert cameras in public or private.