Pervert Connor Atkinson jailed after spying on women at leisure centre


A pervert who peeped over changing room doors to spy on women in breach of a Sexual Harm Prevention order has been locked up for three years.
Connor Atkinson, 20, who moved across Yorkshire committing sexual offences, deliberately sneaked into Keighley Leisure Centre in Hard Ings Road to watch females undressing, Bradford Crown Court heard on Friday.
Atkinson, of Green Way, Glusburn, near Keighley, began his string of offending by sexually assaulting a woman dog walker in Northallerton last summer, prosecutor Paul Abrahams said.
He followed her down a public footpath, grabbed her and touched her indecently.
Atkinson was given a community order at Teeside Crown Court on January 25 and the court made a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) barring him from following lone females.
He next struck in Harrogate, putting his hand up a young woman’s skirt and touching her bottom as she walked down a narrow pathway.
Atkinson committed the two offences of voyeurism at the leisure centre on January 29 and February 4.
One mother had her small daughter with her when he peered over her cubicle in the women’s changing rooms when she was dressing after a swimming session for children.
Atkinson fled when he was challenged by another woman who caught him in the act.
His second victim was in her bra and leggings after an adult swimming class when he peeped over the door of her cubicle.
Atkinson pleaded guilty to an offence of sexual assault and to two charges of voyeurism by observing a female doing a private act, for the purpose of his sexual gratification.
Mr Abrahams told the court: “The Crown are concerned that this defendant is moving from area to area committing sexual offences.”
Judge Jonathan Gibson sentenced him to a total of three years in a young offender institution.
He revoked the original Sexual Harm Prevention Order and replaced it with a more onerous ten year order that means Atkinson must wear a location monitoring device when he is released from custody.
Judge Gibson said Atkinson’s victims had been left shocked and distressed by his offending.
“There’s a clear pattern of your having moved area to commit offences at different locations,” he stated.
Atkinson must sign on the sex offender register indefinitely.