A pervert accountant who used a mirror to peer up women’s skirts as they shopped for designer clothes is thought to be the first person in the UK to be banned from carrying ANY reflective object in public.
Barry Dyson, 39, from Horwich, near Bolton, crouched behind five unsuspecting women in Harvey Nichols and Selfridges and whipped the handheld mirror from his rucksack so he could sneakily catch a glimpse of their knickers and buttocks while they were Christmas shopping.
After confessing his ‘predilection’ for the sinister pastime, he was locked up for 16 weeks at Manchester Magistrates’ Court yeserday after it emerged he was convicted of an identical offence 10 years ago.
Jailing him, District Judge Jonathan Feinstein said the most ‘chilling’ part of the case was the fact the women to this day have no idea what happened to them.
He said: “I hope this is a big shock to you. Having been given opportunities you still resorted to this type of wholly unacceptable, insidious and disrespectful behaviour.”
He was also slapped with an indefinite ‘criminal behaviour order’ banning him from carrying any reflective item in a public place, and ruling he must surrender any recording device in his possession if asked to do so by the police. He must also pay an £80 victim surcharge.
Dyson was spotted acting suspiciously in Harvey Nicholls in Manchester city centre on November 30 last year.
Security staff initially suspected him of stealing until they saw him take a mirror from his rucksack and go behind two females.
When he was approached, he said he had gone to the store ‘to do Christmas shopping and peek up women’s skirts’, before telling police that ‘it turned me on’.
SINISTER ‘PREDILECTION’: Barry Dyson is banned from carrying reflective objects (© Cavendish Press)
After he was arrested he was sacked from his job as an accountant in Salford and is now unemployed for the first time since he graduated in 1996, it was said.
He also has a conviction from 2007 for outraging public decency and was handed a five year ASBO, which the court heard, temporarily halted his fetish.
Prosecuting, Tess Kenyon said: “He wandered from shop to shop and on each occasion crouched down behind a female shopping and held a mirror under her skirt in order to see the image of her knickers and buttocks. He was arrested and he accepted there would be video on his phone of similar acts. He had downloaded them and it wasn’t footage of him.”
In mitigation, Andrew Fitch-Holland said: “When he was arrested in Harvey Nicholls he was taken to the police station where he made full admissions to the offence but then on his own volition explained that he had been in other shops.
“In fact each admission went beyond the offence for which he was detained. His previous offending behaviour is a matter of grave concern. He recognises his particular predilection is disgraceful, distressing and wholly inappropriate.”
Mr Fitch-Holland said that Dyson blamed his latest lapse on problems at work, his snooker team folding and a family bereavement which led to him succumbing to previous demons.
Sentencing, District Judge Fernstein added: “It is something which in a way undermines the position of these women and is distasteful beyond belief. You have had opportunities to get help and treatment.
“When you are confronted with difficulties you resort back to this behaviour. Whatever difficulties you have there is no excuse for this type of behaviour. For women not knowing anything going on to be violated in this way is unacceptable. You have had opportunities to sort this out and you have done it again.”
Story and images via Cavendish Press.
