A 55-year-old man from Essex has been sentenced in court after he pleaded guilty to one count of outraging public decency and breaching a Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO).

Martin Seaman of Rectory Road, Dagenham, Essex, appeared before Blackfriars Crown Court on Wednesday, 7 December, after he was arrested by British Transport Police officers for using a camera to film up woman’s clothing.

On September 13, specialist plain clothes officers witnessed Seaman acting suspiciously on the Piccadilly Line.

He was being observed travelling back and forth on the London Underground system with no apparent purpose.

Officers noticed that each time Seaman boarded a train he would board behind a woman wearing a short skirt or dress.

Officers then observed Seaman place his rucksack, which he was carrying by his side, between a woman’s legs. They noticed a camera device pointing out of the bag which was filming up the woman’s clothing.

Seaman was stopped and arrested on suspicion of outraging public decency.

On closer inspection of the camera device, officers discovered that it was a homemade device which consisted of a glasses case with a phone battery and camera inside it.

Further checks were carried out on Seaman which revealed a SOPO on him, which prohibited him from being in possession of any device that was capable of filming or photographing whilst on public transport.

Seaman was further arrested for breaching this SOPO.

Officers downloaded the contents of Seaman’s homemade camera device and found 17 videos which showed footage of 34 individual women whose clothes had been filmed up across various locations on the London Underground system.

Seaman was charged on September 13 and following his guilty plea has been sentenced to eight months suspended for breaching the SOPO and eight months suspended for outraging public decency. Both suspended for two years.

Officer in charge of the investigation said PC Graham Evans said: “This man clearly set out with an aim to use his own homemade device that he had created for this vile purpose to pry on women in an extremely intrusive way. No one should ever feel fear or intimidation whilst travelling on the rail network and I am pleased we have been able to bring this man to justice.”

Siwan Hayward, TfL’s Head of Transport Policing, said: “Vile and predatory behavior like this has no place on our transport network, where thankfully millions of journeys take place each day without incident. No one should be subjected to unwanted sexual behaviour and anyone who does experience it should report it immediately. It is due to the hard work with our policing colleagues, including specialist investigations and increasing presence, that this man was caught and convicted.”