Police used CCTV to snare a sick Dundee insurance broker who was found to have 90 upskirting photos on his phone after a train journey through Fife.
David Bathgate was caught after a woman suspected him of taking pictures of her under a table on a ScotRail train between Inverkeithing and Kirkcaldy.
British Transport Police (BTP) reviewed train CCTV and spotted his name on the open laptop he was using to try to conceal his sordid activities.
The 42-year-old, of Smiddy Brae, Fowlis, appeared for sentencing at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court after earlier pleading guilty to three voyeurism offences.
It was discovered he also targeted women at a bar and a business in Edinburgh.
CCTV probe
Prosecutor Lauren Pennycook told the court Bathgate, who was employed as an insurance broker in the capital, was at a table on the Edinburgh to Dundee train and opened up his laptop.
A woman saw him with his phone in his hand and was able to see the camera open and that he was deliberately crouching down
The woman believed Bathgate was taking photos of her lower body underneath the table, the fiscal said.
As the woman got off the train, she saw a blank screen on Bathgate’s laptop and suspected he was using it to conceal what he was doing on his phone.
Police were contacted and a BTP officer reviewed CCTV.
Bathgate was seen moving seats, taking out his phone, looking over his shoulder, then moving the device under the table and repeatedly look down at it.
Officers watched CCTV of Bathgate logging into his laptop and spotted his name.
They traced him at his workplace and seized his devices.
Cyber crime analysis uncovered 90 “successful” upskirting images and 184 “attempted” upskirting images, where genitals or buttocks were not captured.
Voyeurism offences admitted
The court heard Bathgate had taken images under tables in relation to all three of his victims, aged in their 20s to 40s.
He admitted operating equipment beneath their clothing by using a mobile phone “to take or attempt to take images” of their bodies under their clothing without their knowledge.
The charge states he operated the equipment with the intention of enabling himself or another person to observe his victims’ genitals, buttocks or underwear.
It is a contravention of section 9 of the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009 covering voyeurism offences.
The offending took place on a ScotRail train on January 19 2023, at the Huxley bar and restaurant in Edinburgh’s Rutland Street in December 2022, and at Lockton Companies in the city’s Torphichen Street in January 2023.
He had originally faced a fourth voyeurism charge and a fifth allegation of committing a breach of the peace but prosecutors previously accepted not guilty pleas to those.
‘Underlying deviance’
Bathgate’s defence lawyer argued for a non-custodial sentence and noted his client, who is not working at present, had resolved guilty pleas before a trial diet.
Sheriff Mark Allan told Bathgate his victims would be left contemplating how they might dress in future and with an uneasy suspicion of men on public transport.
The sheriff said: “In my judgement, these charges and this complaint meets the threshold of a custodial sentence.”
He said if he jailed him this might offer comfort and protection for a short period of time but noted it does not “tackle the underlying deviance”.
Instead, the sheriff gave Bathgate a community payback order comprising 150 hours of unpaid work, three years of offender supervision and a requirement to address his sexual offending.
He made a strict conduct requirement which includes Bathgate not owning more than one digital device capable of taking or making photos, allowing a supervising officer or police to access the device and not deleting any content from that device.
The sheriff stressed the sentence is a direct alternative to custody.
Bathgate was put on the sex offenders register for three years.
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