Judges dismiss rail toilet spy's appeal

David Harold Jones, 63, was banned from the toilets of a mainline railway station and shopping mall after a court heard how he placed a mirror on the floor of a cubicle in the men’s toilets at Preston Railway Station.

A probe was launched by British Transport Police on October 1 last year after a complaint from a 23-year-old man who had noticed the mirror, which had been strategically placed to reflect the image into a camera phone Jones was holding over the top of the cubicle.

The victim, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, noticed Jones’ unusual red leather and white soled shoes and alerted a British Transport Police officer as he left the toilets.

Jones, of Dorset Avenue, in Walton-Le-Dale, near Preston, was initially arrested on suspicion of voyeurism but later admitted an alternative charge of observing a person doing a private act for sexual gratification.

Jones, who is married, launched an appeal at Preston Crown Court against the sentence imposed by Preston Magistrates’ Court.

The bench had originally made him subject to notification requirements with the police for the next five years.

His sentence had also included a prohibited activity requirement banning him entering the loos at Preston Railway Station and The Mall St George’s for 12 months, as well as a rehabilitation activity.

Judge Recorder Timothy Hannam and two magistrates dismissed his case, meaning Jones will still have to pay costs of £85, a £60 victim surcharge and £100 compensation to the man.