Suspended sentence for man who put phone up woman's skirt

41-year-old also caught putting mobile under changing room cubicle

A Douglas man who put his mobile phone up a woman’s skirt in a shop has avoided being sent to prison.

Hasan Gogebakan, of Queen’s Promenade, was recording when he approached the lady in a shop in Port Erin.

The 41-year-old admitted displaying provoking behaviour at Trend, on Church Street, on 3 September.

During sentencing at Douglas Courthouse the court heard Gogebakan had entered the gift shop and begun filming the items on display before putting his phone under the woman’s skirt.

The video was recovered by police when they searched his device in relation to a complaint made by another woman who encountered him at the NSC in Douglas two days later.

She was getting changed in a cubicle in the swimming pool area, on 5 September, when she noticed someone was holding their phone underneath the dividing wall.

The incident was reported and Gogebakan, who is unemployed, later admitted using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour.

Addressing Gogebakan’s offending his advocate said the phone had been put up the woman’s skirt, in the shop, ‘very briefly’ and taken a ‘blurred’ image adding: “There were no indecent bodily images captured.”

At the NSC the advocate said his client had put the device underneath the divider ‘for a few seconds’ and there was no evidence he’d been filming.

“He wishes to personally apologise for his inappropriate behaviour,” he said.

“He does wish to commit to conducting himself more respectfully in the future. There is an identifiable need for professional intervention with this man,” the advocate added.

Sentencing Gogebakan to four months in custody – suspended for two years – Magistrates also imposed a two-year Suspended Sentence Supervision Order.

Ordering him to pay £800 in prosecution costs they told him: “We do not take these offences lightly.”