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| Peek-A-Boo: Mittica |
A TK Maxx store employee caught filming a female customer under the changing rooms divider claims he was on his hands and knees cleaning skirting boards.
The customer, an attractive brunette in her early twenties who was trying on yoga pants, spotted 45 year-old Vincenzo Mittica’s hand, clasping his mobile phone, emerge from under the partition.
“I was on my own in a changing room and had no idea of his intentions. I was scared,” she sobbed at Wimbledon Magistrates Court, where she gave evidence from behind a screen.
“I don’t believe it was a misunderstanding,” she added, rejecting the defendant’s claim he was simply checking his phone.
Italian Mittica, of Darwin Road, Ealing was convicted of attempted voyeurism for the purpose of sexual gratification on July 31, last year at the Kew Retail Centre, Richmond-upon-Thames.
He was placed on a three-month supervision order and must pay the woman £200 compensation and £420 costs as well as an £85 victim surcharge.
Prosecutor Mr. Bhavin Patel told the court it was 11am and the victim was shopping with her boyfriend’s mother for gym clothes and took two pairs of yoga pants and a third item to the changing room.
“She saw Mr. Mittica crouched down by the entrance and realised he was the cleaner. He looked up and carried on cleaning.
“She was concerned there was no female attendant then heard a lady’s voice.
“The complainant went inside, where there were two empty changing rooms and the cleaner was now inside and he made eye contact with her.
“She went to the furthest cubicle and began to undress and took off her trousers to try on the yoga pants.
“She heard someone come into the stall next to her and when she looked down saw shadow.
“In the gap at the bottom of the partition she realised there was a smart phone being held up, with the screen facing up and light coming from it.
“It was titled at a thirty degree angle towards her and at times a part of the phone was on her side of the partition.
“She bent down to see what was on the screen and the phone moved out of sight and she heard someone leave the changing room.
“She looked out and saw the cleaner walking down the corridor away from her.”
The store manager was informed by the young woman who then called the police when she got home.
Mittica was arrested and questioned a month later. “He said he was ordered to clean the skirting boards in the changing rooms.
“He was on his hands and knees when his phone made a noise and he took it out to look at it.
“He said he was not filming, but understood why someone would think that.”
Mr. Patel rejected this account and added: “He was not checking the phone, but using it to take photos of her in a state of undress.
“He was aware of where she is and it is unbelievable that he goes into the next cubicle to clean at that point in time.
‘When the complainant sees what is happening he leaves and does not go to another cubicle to continue cleaning.
“Stating that he was cleaning skirting boards is not a true account.”
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