LEON CHAN, REPEAT OFFENDER FROM SHEFFIELD, JAILED FOR UPSKIRT PICTURE ON SURREY TRAIN
A known repeat offender, Leon Chan, has been sentenced to 20 months in jail after taking a picture up a schoolgirl's skirt on a train in Surrey, nearly a year after being convicted of a similar offence.On October 1, 2020, around 3pm, Chan was traveling on a train from Ewell to Ashtead when he observed a 17-year-old girl in school uniform.
CCTV footage showed that he sat nearby, stared at her, and then followed her after she moved from her seat to stand near the train door.
During this time, he held his phone camera and appeared to flash its light.
According to reports, Chan then sat next to her and placed his bag on the floor.
He crouched down to rummage through it using one hand, while holding his phone camera towards the girl’s legs with the other.
The girl moved away, but Chan continued to follow her, crouching again and pointing his camera at her.
She noticed and turned around, revealing that he was filming up her skirt.
After this incident, Chan left the train at Ashtead, but he quickly reboarded and continued his journey.
He was later identified by police officers in Sheffield, where he resides, and was subsequently arrested.
At Sheffield Crown Court on March 9, Chan was convicted and sentenced.
The court also noted that he had previously been issued a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) and received a suspended prison sentence in 2019 following another upskirting offence in London.
In that earlier case, he was convicted of outraging public decency in Southwark Crown Court in November 2019 after being found to have filmed females at a Topshop in Oxford Circus.
The SHPO issued to Chan restricted his possession of devices capable of capturing images unless certain conditions were met and banned him from filming females without their explicit consent.
In relation to the Surrey incident, he was found guilty of recording beneath clothing to observe someone without consent and of breaching the SHPO.
Additionally, he was ordered to sign the Sex Offenders Register for ten years, and a new SHPO was issued.
Detective Constable Amina Khoyratee from British Transport Police emphasized the seriousness of such offences, stating, "Upskirting is a truly horrendous invasion of privacy and I would like to make it absolutely clear that we will always take these reports seriously." She highlighted Chan’s lack of remorse, saying, "Chan is a repeat offender who has shown no remorse throughout our investigation, so it's lucky he'll now have plenty of time on his hands in prison where he can reflect on his predatory behaviour." Khoyratee also noted that legislation against upskirting, introduced in 2019, provides police with stronger powers to charge suspects for this invasive and sexual misconduct.
