DORNIEL NICA AND CHARGES OF VOYEURISM IN CHESTER AND WARRINGTON
A man from Chester has been remanded in custody after an incident involving an attempt to secretly film a young girl using public restroom facilities in a busy shopping centre.Dorniel Nica, aged 28 and already registered as a sex offender, was observed on surveillance footage using his mobile phone to peer underneath a toilet cubicle.
The young girl believed he was engaging in a sexual act on himself while she was inside one of the stalls.
Despite his attempts to deny any wrongdoing, authorities were able to identify Nica through advanced facial recognition technology, which proved crucial in the investigation.
The courts, however, were skeptical of Nica’s claims of innocence and found sufficient evidence of his guilt beyond reasonable doubt.
This case was brought before Warrington Magistrates’ Court on Monday, November 21.
Nica was convicted following a trial after he initially pleaded not guilty to charges of voyeurism and attempting to observe a person engaging in a private act.
His conviction also placed him in breach of an existing suspended sentence order.
Vincent Yip, the prosecutor, outlined the sequence of events that led to Nica’s arrest.
On October 2, a teenage girl was using the public toilets at Golden Square Shopping Centre after feeling unwell.
While in a cubicle, she noticed a hand holding a black iPhone extended from the adjoining stall.
She believed the phone was recording her private activity and heard sounds which she thought indicated a man was masturbating nearby.
The girl’s friend had briefly left to get her water, and upon her return, both left the toilets without seeing the suspect.
They then approached police officers at Warrington Bus Station and reported the incident.
The officers conducted a search of the toilets but found no immediate sign of the man.
Further investigations led to the review of CCTV footage from the shopping centre.
The footage showed a man entering the female toilets at approximately 5:12 pm and leaving around 5:55 pm.
After leaving the toilets, the man was observed wandering the shopping centre premises before departing the area.
Law enforcement officers captured an image of the suspect from the CCTV footage and utilized Retrospective Facial Recognition software to identify him.
The process quickly yielded a match with Dorniel Nica.
The following morning, Nica was arrested at his residence in Warrington on suspicion of voyeurism.
During the arrest, police seized a mobile phone from his person.
Nica’s offences were characterized by the court as acts committed ‘for the purposes of obtaining sexual gratification.’ It was also revealed that he had a prior suspended sentence imposed on September 21 for two separate offences: intentionally exposing his genitals with the intent of soliciting others’ attention in Chester, and theft of £329.94 worth of men’s clothing from TK Maxx in Solihull.
The magistrates highlighted the seriousness of Nica’s latest crimes, emphasizing that only a custodial sentence was appropriate.
The young age of the victim, Nica’s history of similar offending, and the public nature of the location contributed to this decision.
Consequently, Nica was sentenced to 36 weeks in prison.
Furthermore, he was mandated to comply with sex offender notification and registration requirements for the next ten years.
He was also subjected to two restraining orders forbidding him from contacting two girls for a period of five years.
Additionally, he was ordered to pay a surcharge of £187 to fund victim services.
Commenting after the hearing, PC Wendy Whitehead stated, “If it was not for the bravery of the victim for approaching the first police officers she had seen, we may not have been able to achieve the result we have done.
Thanks to the new technology available to us, we were able to identify Nica quickly and effectively, allowing us to make further enquiries and ascertain his whereabouts.
This led us to get justice for Nica’s victims and put a prolific offender behind bars and off the streets of Cheshire.
This result reinforces our commitment to tackling violence against women and girls.
We will prevent, deter and take action against anyone who preys on women and girls.
I hope this result will provide reassurance to the public, and perhaps it will allow others to have the courage and report incidents such as this to us.”
