Many people do not realise that upskirting is a crime and fail to take the offence seriously, a senior police officer has warned.
Detective Superintendent Kate MacLeod from City of London Police said upskirting is abuse, and can escalate into 鈥渇ar worse鈥 behaviour.
She apprehended a man filming up a woman鈥檚 skirt while off duty and on a day trip to the British Museum with her children in August.
The trio were in crowds around the Rosetta Stone, when she noticed that something was not right about the man鈥檚 behaviour.
鈥淗e was craning his head round to look at the stone and his body looked as if it was in the right place, but I could see his hand, he was holding a phone, was firmly pushed into the underskirt of the lady standing in front of him,鈥 she told the PA news agency.
Shouting that she was a police officer, she restrained the man and took him to security staff, who confirmed that he had images of the woman on his phone.
Mrs MacLeod said crowded areas such as tourist hotspots and the Tube can provide cover for such offenders.
鈥淭ourist sites where you get large groups of people are clearly going to be quite attractive to people who want to commit upskirting offences.
鈥淭here鈥檚 no way he could have done that if it weren鈥檛 for the cover he had from other people around him.鈥
There were so many images on his phone that she believes members of the public must have seen him filming victims on previous occasions before he was finally caught.
鈥淯pskirting is still a relatively new offence, and a lot of people won鈥檛 be aware it exists,鈥 she said.
鈥淕enerationally, people won鈥檛 be aware that mobile phones are being used in that way.
鈥淧eople must have seen him doing this or had a suspicion and maybe didn鈥檛 do anything, or maybe they didn鈥檛 realise it was an offence.
鈥淧eople don鈥檛 realise the severity of the crime.
鈥淲e talk about violence against women and girls, and I think a lot of people think that has to be physical violence.
鈥淏ut actually this is still abuse, albeit seemingly low level, and those behaviours can escalate into something far, far worse.鈥
Jake Verano Gomez, 33, was jailed for four months at Highbury Corner Magistrates鈥 Court on August 21 after admitting recording an image under clothing to observe another without consent.
He was also put on the sex offenders register for seven years.
