A Dundee man has admitted taking photos under women’s clothing on a train journey in Fife, at a plush Edinburgh hotel and at an insurance broker in the capital.
David Bathgate, 42, targeted one of his three victims while on a ScotRail train between Inverkeithing and Kirkcaldy on January 19 2023.
He violated a second woman at the Huxley bar and restaurant in Edinburgh’s Rutland Street on December 21 2022 and a third woman at Lockton Companies in the city’s Torphichen Street on 26 January 2023.
Bathgate, of Smiddy Brae, Fowlis, appeared at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court to plead guilty to the three voyeurism offences.
He was put on the sex offenders register ahead of sentencing next month.
Bathgate admitted operating equipment beneath the clothing of three women by using a mobile phone “to take or attempt to take images” of their bodies under their clothing without their knowledge.
The charges state he operated the equipment with the intention of enabling himself or another person to observe their genitals, buttocks or underwear.
It is a contravention of Section 9 of the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009 covering voyeurism offences.
‘Repeatedly’ took photos
Bathgate had faced a fourth voyeurism charge and a fifth allegation of committing a breach of the peace but prosecutors accepted not guilty pleas to those.
He had been accused of using his phone to take or attempt to take images under the clothing of “various women” whose identities are meantime unknown to the prosecutor on various occasions between July 2022 and March 2023.
It was alleged this happened at various locations including Princes Street, Edinburgh, and on various train services in Scotland including journeys between Haymarket and Dundee, Torphichen Street, Edinburgh, and elsewhere unknown to the prosecutor.
At the same locations and over the same timeframe, Bathgate had also been accused of repeatedly using his phone to take pictures of various women without their knowledge.
This breach of the peace charge included the name of one woman and “those whose identities are meantime to the prosecutor unknown”.
Sheriff Mark Allan deferred sentencing until March 6 to obtain background reports.
Full details of the circumstances surrounding these crimes are expected to be given at the sentencing hearing.
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