These are the disturbing moments before and after a predator tries to film a 15-year-old schoolgirl under the divider of a unisex changing room cubicle in a waterpark.
Liam Warlow, 27, is seen on CCTV footage loitering in the changing room area of LC Swansea waterpark in south Wales looking up and down the corridor while standing in the doorway of a cubicle.
The video then cuts to him running out of the changing room after trying to film the girl in a state of undress with his phone.
Swansea Crown Court heard Warlow was in the changing area after he had dried and dressed when he spotted the girl, who was at the waterpark with her mother.
He then adjusted his hair in the mirror while he ‘paid particular attention’ to the girl who was near him.
After she went into a cubicle, Warlow walks into the adjoining cubicle and tris to film her with his phone.
The CCTV footage shows Warlow looking up and down the corridor of the changing area
The predator stands in the doorway of a cubicle
The judge said it was clear that Warlow ‘paid particular attention’ to the girl
The girl kicked the phone when she saw it come under the divider and Warlow quickly ran out of the cubicle, the Mirror reported.
After the incident, Warlow was seen running out of the leisure centre without saying goodbye to the family and friends and he was there with.
He was arrested two days later at his then-partner’s home.
Judge Geraint Walters said it was ‘perfectly obvious’ what Warlow was up to in the waterpark.
‘Having set eyes upon her, you quite purposefully, and with a fair degree of determination, hung about in the changing area – including viewing her through a mirror at one stage – until she entered a cubicle,’ the judge said.
‘You entered the adjoining cubicle, and while there you used your phone to film her. She said the phone was plainly recording and she could see herself on it.’
Warlow, of Heol Tir Du in Cwmrhydyceirw, initially told the police that he had accidentally dropped his phone which had ‘managed to start recording by itself’.
Judge Walters dismissed his claim, saying: ‘I would have to be very naive to accept that proposition, as would a jury, had you tried that one on them.’
After he was arrested, Warlow told the police he could not remember the code to access the ‘private area’ of his phone. The judge added he would have to be ‘extremely naive’ to accept this claim as well.
Warlow gave the police a code to access another part of his phone, which contained a video he had taken of himself masturbating in what appeared to be a public toilet cubicle on a separate occasion.
Warlow’s lawyer told the court: ‘Clearly he is deeply ashamed of what’s gone on. Mr Warlow states the impact on the victim must have been horrible.’
Warlow was spared an immediate jail term after a Swansea Crown Court judge suspended his six-month term for two years.
The defendant pleaded guilty to observing a private act for sexual gratification. He has previous convictions for burglary and cannabis possession from 2013.
At the sentencing on December 20, 2023 Judge Walters said: ‘You set eyes upon her and at that moment decided to see if you had any opportunity to film her in a state, no doubt, of undress.
The predator grabs his belongings begins to run out of the cubicle after he was caught
Warlow runs out of the cubicle after the girl kicked the phone he had tried to record he with out of his hand
‘Your conduct that day has, for a considerable period of time, blighted you. And it will.
‘You will be on the sex offenders register. You’ve lost your partner, by the looks of it. No doubt in any future relationship you have, you will end up coming under the scrutiny of social services.’
Judge Walters said the sentencing guidelines led him to suspend a six-month jail term for two years after he acknowledged ‘most members of the public would probably expect me to send you to prison today’.
The judge added that Warlow would have to deal with his issues around filming in public for sexual excitement, which the defendant must take a 43-day programme to address.
He also must attend 45 days of ‘general rehabilitation’.
Warlow will be on the sex offenders register and subject to a sexual harm prevention order for seven years.