A MAN who took photos of a young boy in the changing rooms at a Llandudno swimming baths has been spared jail.

Andrew Telford, of Conway Road in Llandudno Junction, appeared before Caernarfon Crown Court and admitted to five charges of voyeurism.

The prosecution Simon Parry told the court that Telford, 29, was at Llandudno swimming baths during the school holidays in August last year.

Telford’s victim - a 12-year-old boy, was at the council-run pool and using the changing facilities when he noticed a mobile phone appear over the top edge of his locked cubicle twice.

Telford was arrested after the boy told his father and alerted the police.

The boy was said to be anxious by the incident and left in fear that the images would appear on social media sites.

In a statement he said that this incident made him ‘uneasy’ about returning to the Llandudno area for quite some time afterwards.

The court heard how CCTV footage was examined during the police investigation and it revealed Telford taking the images one time, looking at the device and then returning to take more pictures over the cubicle wall.

The officers were able to arrest Telford after identifying and tracing his vehicle leaving the facility after the incident.

His home address was searched and dozens of images were recovered across two mobile devices.

These images – which were taken as early as January 2018 – also included upskirting shots.

Mr Parry went on to tell the judge how Telford was interviewed and admitted that he had taken three videos in the changing rooms of the swimming baths and claimed that his intention was to film a female and did not know that the cubicle was occupied by a young boy.

He confessed that there would be upskirting images on his devices and they were for his own personal gratification.

Defence counsel Sarah Yates said that her client felt extremely remorseful and was “ashamed of his behaviour” and told the judge how Telford has already been taking part in counselling sessions to address his issues. She said Telford “lost control of his life” and this behaviour is how he dealt with that. Ms Yates says that Telford could work with the probation service to address these issues in a much better way than immediate custody would have provided.

Judge Petts gave Telford an eight-month prison term but suspended that for two years. He was also ordered to register as a sex offender for 10 years and complete a 60-day rehabilitation programme and 200 hours of unpaid work.

In passing sentence, he said: “You knew exactly who was in that cubicle as it has been pointed out, you took an image and went back for more. These are clearly worrying and very serious offences and you need to be dealt with.

“The number of images and the number victims of your offending – some of whom will never know what you did cannot be ignored. This also had a considerable impact on the young boy who was your victim.”

He added that Telford had had no previous convictions, had shown remorse for his actions and made full admissions to what he had done.

He was also taking steps to get help for the issues which led to his offending in this manner.

Judge Petts added: “I have taken the view that the public risk you pose is best addressed by a long period of working in the community. It is not a soft option.

“An immediate prison term of four months would give you very little time to allow any protective work to be done.”